Theatre Kids Never Die
by GollyGeeWhiz
Summary: In which Annabeth Chase is everyone's favourite triple-threat, with her dream role in the school musical. The only problem is that her co-star and onstage lover happens to be her arch-rival – the notoriously obnoxious and attractive Percy Jackson. Percabeth AU. Oneshot. For Mia!


**Hello my friends and how are you all on this fine Summer's eve welcome to my new oneshot!**

 **So first and foremost: this story is for Mia (herecomesthepun)! Hi Mia, love you!**

 **Originally, this was meant to be for Mia's** **birthday, but that came and went about three months ago (whoops). So. I was trying to think of another occasion that this story could be given in honour of and lo and behold here we are: exactly a year (minus nine days) since the day that we met at Kings Cross! (Which by the way was one of the coolest days of my life.) So to Mia! You're hilarious and amazing and chatting with you always makes me smile because we just have the most interesting conversations (along with Rach, I don't think they'd be half as interesting without her). You're an amazing theatre nerd, just like ME (which makes this story fit perfectly as a gift) and you do fantastic things like write us dumb Spring Operas and make me laugh with your crazy British slang and have such a similar mind to me that we almost accidentally wrote the same story? Still marvelling at that one. Anyways, you know I love you a lot and if I ever get into an amazing YA adventure I'll be sure to contact you! Happy Kings Cross Anniversary!**

 **Named affectionately for a group chat I was in with some musical peoples.**

 **Basic knowledge of the musical _Grease_ could be useful but is ****absolutely not necessary.**

 **Rated T for some swearing. (Scandalous, right?)**

 **Alrighty so sorry for that very long AN I'm going to let you read the story now thanks so much to anyone who's here! Hope you enjoy! And on with the show, as they say.**

* * *

Annabeth only felt truly alive when the lights were on her face.

She loved the rush performing gave her, and she loved the people she met. Rehearsing was amazing too, she loved seeing shows come alive. When she was standing on a stage with the lights shining in her eyes, a full house in front of her, she was _living._

When she was four years old, Annabeth got her first microphone. It was small and made of pink plastic, and she ripped it from its careful wrapping with eager, chubby, hands. From the first moment Annabeth raised that microphone to her lips, her obsession with theatre began. Countless singing lessons, acting classes and dance performances later, here she was. Standing outside the theatre, shuffling her feet anxiously.

The cast list was up, and Annabeth hadn't yet gotten the courage to check it. It was hung dauntingly on the bulletin board outside the theatre, surrounded by cheerfully coloured posters of audition information. Annabeth glared at it.

"Too chicken to check?" asked a voice behind her, and Annabeth turned quickly, her face flushing. There was a boy standing behind her, his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. His hair was sticking up and he looked smug. Annabeth scowled at him.

"I'm building up an appropriate amount of anticipation," Annabeth said as haughtily as she was able to, putting her hands on her hips and trying to stare him down, which was difficult since he was about an inch taller than her and staring down with taunting eyes.

His lips twitched up in amusement. "Don't bother. All that anticipation for nothing. What did you audition for again? Tree number two?"

Annabeth snorted, turning back to the bulletin board. "You keep that smug attitude for when I kick your ass."

Friendly rivalry was all part of the game in theatre, but the rivalry Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson shared was far from friendly. Six years in the running, Annabeth and Percy had figured out exactly how to make each other tick. It had started with the casting of their seventh grade musical, when Percy got the part Annabeth had been wanting for what felt like her entire life. Of course, it had only been a small part in the chorus, but Annabeth had wanted it none the less and the smug face of the scrawny little boy who couldn't even sing made her fly into a rage. In the heat of the moment, she tried to slap the smugness out of his face and ended up getting detentions for a week and a phone call home. She got him back later that year when she won the school talent show and he came in a meagre second. Percy's scowl was enough to make her stand straighter and push her chest out just a bit more to show off her blue ribbon, and that was where it began.

Offstage and onstage, Percy and Annabeth hated each other. Annabeth's favourite year had been the one where she'd gotten to play the villain of the show and spent all the rehearsals picking on him because it was in character. They shared dirty looks in the hall, he purposely pronounced her name wrong every time. Once she bribed his locker mate Grover to let her stick rotten eggs in his locker, and the next day she open her backpack after gym class to find her entire bag full of hand lotion.

All of that led them to now, glaring at each other in the middle of the hallway outside the theatre as students flowed around them in a steady stream, chatting and hurrying to their next classes. Annabeth was desperate to know what part she had, but she couldn't be the first to give in.

"Are you going to stand here blocking traffic or are you going check the cast list?" Percy asked finally, blinking and losing the staring contest they'd been having for the last few seconds of silence. Annabeth grunted in response, pushing past him and striding over the board. Her eyes scanned down the list.

First she let out a big sigh of relief. Then her eyes drifted one name down, and she stepped backwards, clapping her hands over mouth to stifle the horrified gasp.

Percy's fingers were dusting over the names in disbelief. " _No_ ," he hissed.

Their eyes met.

Right under **Sandy Dumbrowski : Annabeth Chase** was **Danny Zuko : Percy Jackson.** For a minute of horrified silence, Percy and Annabeth stared at each other.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," Annabeth said in a low voice, glaring at Percy.

He scoffed. "I'm not so happy about it either, Annabelle."

"Anna _beth_."

"If you say so."

Annabeth growled in frustration, spinning around and stomping her foot on the ground in childish frustration. "I can't believe this. I can't _believe_ this. I have to share an onstage romance with _you_. You are just the most… _argh!"_

The bell rang, and Annabeth smacked a hand to her forehead, shaking her head. "Great, I'm late for class. This is great, just great. This is all your _fault_." She spun on her heel, and took off at a run, flying down the stairs as Percy flung some sort of insult she didn't quite catch at her back. She slipped into the classroom while the teacher's back was turned and slid down into her seat gracelessly, dropping her backpack onto the floor with a thump and blowing hair out of her face.

Thalia, who was sitting in the seat beside her, raised one dark eyebrow. "Geeze, what's got you all worked up? You look like a tomato."

Annabeth touched her cheeks self-consciously, finding them burning. She shook her head and reach down under the table to get her pencil case and notebook out of her backpack, sighing as she slammed them down on the table and started to copy down the entrance slip on the board. Thalia leaned over five minutes later, when Annabeth had finished the work and was scribbling aggressive squiggles in the margins of her page. The pencil ripped through her page and Annabeth threw it down in frustration.

"Seriously, what's up?" Thalia asked finally, talking softly so the teacher wouldn't overhear, and leaning dangerously far back in her chair as she popped a bubble of purple gum. "You look like you're going to cry and you're mutilating that poor sheet of paper."

Annabeth took a breath and closed her eyes. "It's nothing, it's just—the musical cast list came out today, and—"

"Oh, never mind," Thalia interrupted, turning away. "I changed my mind, I don't want to hear about your musical issues, you know I hate musicals."

"I _know_ I found you crying in your car listening to _Hamilton_ last week."

Thalia's pale cheek bones flushed slightly. Musicals didn't go with her punk rock style of combat boots and leather jackets with blue lining that matched the streaks in her dark hair, but Annabeth knew she had a secret weakness for them. Thalia scowled. "Shut up, that was a hard day." She crossed her arms and leaned even farther back. Annabeth was sure she was going to fall. "Fine, tell me what's up with the stupid musical."

"Because you're dying inside to know," Annabeth laughed, and then cleared her throat at Thalia's death glare. "Right, so the cast list came out today, and I got cast as Sandy—"

"Well, that's good, right?"

" _Yes_ , but Percy Jackson got cast as Danny."

There was a silence. Then Thalia burst out laughing, her chair falling forwards again a dull thud. From the front of the room, the teacher glared at them. Annabeth slapped Thalia's arm, shushing her. "It's not _funny_ , Thalia."

Thalia wiped the corner of her eyes, still giggling. "It is, it's hilarious. Oh my god, Annabeth, you're going to have to kiss Percy Jackson."

Annabeth sunk down in her chain in humiliation, aware that the girls in front of them were glancing over their shoulders at the commotion. "I can't believe this. This is too much."

Thalia rolled her eyes and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. "Hey, it could be worse. At least he's hot."

" _Thalia!_ " Annabeth shot up. "That's not the _point_."

"You're not denying it."

Annabeth covered her face with her hands. "Oh my god."

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur. Annabeth was having trouble concentrating; Percy Jackson's smug face kept popping up in her mind's eye and she was going to have to _kiss_ him. The idea. She lost a point on her mental calculations in math because she couldn't stop thinking about it, and by the time she finally made to the theatre at the end of the school day she was in a royally bad mood. She stormed into the theatre and slumped down into a chair at the back of the room, pulling out her phone. There was already a collection of nervous-looking freshmen scattered around the room, sitting on the edge of their seats and glancing around anxiously. A few pairs of eyes trailed Annabeth across the room, and she ignored them.

Someone sat down beside her, sighing loudly and dropping their bag with a thump. Annabeth looked up, glaring, and her best friend Piper raised her hands in a surrender motion. "Woah girl, you look like you could murder someone. What's going on?"

Annabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Have you _seen_ the cast list?"

Piper frowned, tucking a strand of soft brown hair behind her ear. "Yeah? We're doing _Grease_ just like you suggested? You're Sandy, just like you suggested?"

" _Yeah_ , but have you seen who's _Danny_?" She was going to hate having to explain this constantly.

"No I haven't, who's—" Piper paused, and her eyes went round. "Oh my god, it's _not._ "

Annabeth nodded glumly. "Percy."

Piper pressed her lips together sympathetically. "Damn. That—sucks."

"You're telling me."

Piper gave her a minute of respectful silence to mourn the loss of a perfect musical before she started babbling again. She had gotten Frenchie instead of Rizzo like she'd auditioned for, and she was pissed because _stupid Reyna-what's-her-last-name_ was already class president and did not deserve Rizzo too, and besides Piper practiced that audition song for _months_. Annabeth stared grudgingly at the empty stage, half listening as they rest of the cast trickled in. Percy Jackson came in very last, swinging through the doorway right as their director was about to begin his speech and striding across the room like he was right on time. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

Mr. D, their director of the past four years, was standing at the front of the room surveying the room with beady eyes. He glared at Percy until he chose a seat and sat down, crossing his legs. Today Mr. D was wearing a neon orange Hawaiian shirt, pulled tight over his beer-belly. He cleared his throat and launched into a speech about how he didn't want to be there so _all of you little morons better work hard or else._ Having already heard this speech every previous year, Annabeth felt her gaze slip over to where Percy Jackson was sitting. He was already looking at her, and upon noticing her gaze, wrinkled his nose and turned away. Annabeth resisted the urge to flip him off.

The speech ended a few minutes later, and there was the bustle of handing out scripts and music. Annabeth flipped through hers eagerly, checking the range on songs and pausing at lines she didn't recognize. Beside her, Piper scoffed and muttered, " _Frenchie_."

"We're just going to start with some singing today," said Mr. D flatly as he chucked the last script at the head of surprised freshman. "Ms. Aphrodite isn't here today, so I'll be teaching you."

Annabeth and Piper exchanged looks. Mr. D could neither sing or play the piano, and the last time he had tried to teach music four people had ended up in tears.

They began one of the numbers with lots of chorus parts, and after stumbling through words and notes for about ten minutes Annabeth tripped through a solo she had never heard before. Mr. D stopped banging at the piano keys and Annabeth glanced up. He was staring at Percy, who had a hand in the air.

Mr. D sighed loudly and Annabeth feared his buttons would pop. " _Yes_ , Mr. Jackson?"

"Yes, sorry to bother you." Percy glanced over at her, and suddenly Annabeth was filled with irrational fear. "I don't think any of those notes that Amybeth just sang were right. Are you sure that _she's_ the one you picked to play Sandy? Personally, I don't see it."

Annabeth's temper, still running taunt, snapped and she leapt to her feet, letting her books clatter off her lap. " _Annabeth._ And come on, you _know_ that's not fair. No, you know what, you try it! You sing that solo, right here, right now."

Percy twirled his pencil. "Please, I'm not some stuck up soprano."

"At least I have enough talent that I can get attention without picking on people."

"I have _talent!_ " Percy clambered up from his chair. "It just doesn't need to be mentioned. It goes unsaid. You obviously find the need to justify your talent every few minutes."

Annabeth scoffed. "You don't know how _hard_ I've worked."

"Right, like you even—"

"You are just the _most_ —"

"If there is a point to this argument, please continue," Mr. D interrupted at last, bored. "Otherwise I would like you both to leave the room until you can speak civilly. One more peep out of _either_ of you and I send you _both_ straight to the office."

"But—" protested Percy.

" _Principal_." Mr. D stood up, clapping his hands down on the top of the piano and making both Percy and Annabeth jump back. " _Now._ "

For a second, neither moved. Then, huffing loudly, Annabeth swooped down and picked up her backpack, knocking her chair over in the process. Without sparing a second glance to the rest of the room, she stomped across the room and slammed through the door. Percy caught up with her when she was halfway down the hall, jogging lightly to keep up. Annabeth ignored him.

"You couldn't just—" Percy started.

Annabeth interrupted. "Just _don't_. This is your fault."

Percy followed her in silence for the rest of the way to the office, where they were both given an hour of detention the following Friday and an excessively long talking to. Annabeth was out the door before Percy even picked up his backpack.

Piper caught up to her when Annabeth was a few blocks a few away from the school, still fuming. Annabeth heard Piper's feet thumping behind her and paused while Piper came to her side, panting gently. She smiled sweetly at Annabeth's murderous expression and linked their arms.

"Mr. D yelled at a freshman for not knowing what note an A was after you left," Piper filled in as they walked. "She almost started crying, Mr. D vowed never to teach music again, yada yada. Ooh, also he gave a permission form for the musical retreat. Here I grabbed one for you." She dropped Annabeth's arm to swing her backpack over her shoulder, rummaging around until she found the paper she was looking for. She handed it to Annabeth. "Same place as always. We're doing two nights this year. Do you realize that _we're_ the seniors now? We have to plan some seriously awesome games of _Never Have I Ever_."

Annabeth sighed. "Yeah. It's going to be great."

* * *

There were far too many people on the bus.

Annabeth sat at the very back with Piper, enjoying the way the bus bumped up and down as it rolled through the city until the buildings started to thin, replaced with grass and trees. The girls played cards as they bounced along, until Piper lost her fourth game in a row and pulled out her phone in frustration, pointedly ignoring Annabeth until she pulled out a book and buried herself in it for the rest of the ride.

They arrived the camp a few hours later, and there was the usual bustle of getting all duffels and sleeping bags off the bus, scanning for forgotten pillows. The group received the usual talk about what was not appropriate at camp (canoodling was _strictly_ forbidden), and then everyone split into rooms. Almost all of the girls wanted to be in the same cabin as Annabeth, Piper and some of the other seniors, and Annabeth had far too much fun relishing in the popularity of it all.

Eventually, all was sorted, and they all sat down for lunch at grey plastic tables and chatted over taco salad and juice that tasted like Fuzzy Peaches. After dinner everyone sat in a big circle on the floor and did a read through of the entire script. Annabeth ended up lying on her back and holding her script in the air, reading her lines as they came up. She cringed through a few of the more romantic scenes every time she heard Percy's voice respond, though it was impossible to deny he was a great actor. She hated it.

Once the read through was finally done, they settled down to watch the movie version of _Grease_ on the large screen in the main building of the camp. The group collected their sleeping bags and pillows from the various cabins and rooms, and Annabeth and Piper changed into their pyjamas. Piper spent ten minutes brushing out her hair while Annabeth tapped her foot impatiently, and the two girls ended up sprinting back to the main building in socked feet through the damp grass, sleeping bags and pillows spilling out of their arms. They snuck through the dark room, stepping over students as the opening credits to the movie played.

Annabeth finally found an open spot where they could dump their sleeping bags and pillows, and they collapsed unceremoniously onto the piles of soft material. They were getting comfy, and Annabeth had already gone to fetch them some hot chocolate and cinnamon buns when she realized who they'd chosen to sit next to.

It was Percy Jackson, of course it was, blinking at her through the dark with big dark eyes. Annabeth scoffed in annoyance.

"What?" asked Percy too loudly. "You sat down next to _me_!"

Several people shushed him, and he fell silent.

The movie passed in uncomfortable silence. Annabeth was hoping to enjoy it, but the presence of the boy beside her had ruined it. The sleeping bags were squished closed together and Annabeth bumped arms with him a couple times as they shifted around, and in the middle of the movie he fell asleep right on her pillow. Annabeth almost shoved him off, but his eyes were closed, lips slightly parted, and he looked—less annoying when he slept. Almost sweet. Maybe there were worse people to kiss, she thought grudgingly. At least it wasn't that creep Octavian who was in the musical chorus in ninth grade, and who she'd had to dance with in the ballroom scene. He had the coldest, clammiest hands Annabeth had ever felt, and he smelt like sour milk. Percy at least seemed to have some basic hygiene. Although, he _was_ drooling on her pillow. She shoved him off, and he sat up, running a hand through his hair and blinking his eyes sleepily. Annabeth looked back up at the screen.

The credits were rolling soon, and Annabeth blinked as the lights came on. She made accidental eye contact with Percy again, and squinted at him in annoyance. He squinted back, and they stared at each other until Piper pulled her sleeping bag out from under her and Annabeth was forced to collect the rest of her stuff. Everyone jogged back through the damp grass and night air until they reached the cabins. As they walked, shoes in hand, Annabeth glanced up the sky, big and open far away from the city lights. There were _so many stars_. Annabeth could stare at them forever.

They finally disappeared back into the cabins, and Piper and Annabeth hosted the best game of _Never Have I Ever_ that had ever existed.

* * *

The next morning started rehearsals.

They sat in chairs in a large circle around the piano. The music teacher, Ms. Aphrodite—a tall woman with dark hair that flowed down to her waist and makeup that was constantly perfect—played the score with nimble fingers Annabeth wished she could replicate. They began with one of the big ensemble numbers, joining in with clumsy harmonies. Annabeth's voice was crusty with sleep, but she belted out her solos anyways, enjoying the music despite her early morning voice cracks. In between solos Annabeth crept out of the circle and made tea by the sink, singing softly along to the music. She even found her head bobbing alonsg to Percy's smooth tenor solos, but stopped quickly.

After singing came snack time, and then choreography. After an hour of clumsy steps and repeating the same motions over and over, Ms. Aphrodite decided to work on one of the big chorus numbers, and told Percy and Annabeth they were free until lunch time. Annabeth exchanged a pained look over her shoulder with Piper. In silence, Percy and Annabeth slipped on their shoes and walked out into the crisp air of an autumn morning. Red leaves dripped down from the trees, crunching beneath her feet.

"What do you want to do?" Percy asked, startling Annabeth out of her retrieve.

"What?"

Percy rolled his eyes, then repeated himself very slowly like Annabeth wasn't exceptionally smart. "What do you want to _do?_ "

"Yes, I _heard_ you," Annabeth said, crossing her arms. "I just don't understand. You want to—do something? With _me?_ "

Percy pointed back at the building they had just immerged from. "Well if you haven't noticed, everyone interesting is still inside, and I'm not about to do my math homework."

Annabeth squinted at him. "I think you're just trying to sabotage me."

"Why would I sabotage you?" Percy tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. "You're my co-star."

"Ugh," Annabeth shuddered. "Gross. Don't say that."

"Do you want to play volleyball?" Percy asked, and Annabeth was surprised to see a slight smile playing at his lips.

She thought about it for a moment. Beating Percy at volleyball _did_ sound pretty appealing. "Fine. One round."

They played six rounds. Annabeth won four of them. They both came into lunch laughing and covered in bruises.

* * *

The afternoon passed in a blur, and evening rolled around. They had a talent show Piper and Annabeth organized, and the two girls sat in the back quietly critiquing every performance and trying to decide which freshmen would be the next big stars. Piper took the microphone for an impressive acapella version of some pop song Annabeth didn't recognize, and Percy danced around to his own version of _What Do I Know?_ Annabeth played the guitar for the very last performance, and got the entire room to join in for a big round of _I Can't Help Falling In Love_. She glanced up from her strumming fingers to survey the room, pleased to see everyone grinning and singing along. Her eyes fluttered to a stop on Percy, surprised to see even he was smiling and singing. She closed the talent show with a flourish.

"Hey, Pipes, wanna see something cool?" Annabeth asked as she packed her guitar carefully back into its case. She slipped the capo into the front pocket and zipped it up just as Piper wandered over.

She grinned. "Yeah, obviously. What?"

Annabeth stood up, slinging her guitar over her arm and beckoning for Piper to follow. "Here, come." She led Piper to the bathroom, and before Piper could question her, pushed open a door at the back of the room.

"Woah." Piper's eyes widened. "You found a secret passage way to the kitchen!"

Annabeth beamed. "Come on, let's steal some ice cream bars."

They snuck into the kitchen and stole a couple of chocolate ice cream bars from the bottom of the freezer, and Annabeth stuck of few in her pockets for safe keeping. She snuck up behind Piper and stuck one in each of Piper's back pockets, making her squeal loudly and jump away. Laughing, Annabeth shushed her.

There was a roaring campfire outside, and Piper and Annabeth joined as sneakily as they could, munching quietly on ice cream bars and listening to scary stories while embers popped in front of them. Percy noticed the ice creams bars, and was about to call them out, so Annabeth tossed one at his head to shut him up. He grinned triumphantly

Scary stories were always scarier by a camp fire in the dead of night, surrounded by trees and blanketed by stars. Annabeth and Piper shrieked and clutched at each other, pretty sure that if they let go they would be victims to terrible fates. In the middle of the circle, the embers popped and raised in little orange sparks to the sky, trying to join into the constellations of stars overhead.

Once the stories were finished and there was chocolate melted on Annabeth's jeans, she tapped Piper on the shoulder. "I'm going to wander out to the field to star gaze. You coming?"

Piper shook her head and shuddered, her eyes wide and shifting colours like a kaleidoscope. Annabeth could almost see the reflections of the stars in them. "There is no way I'm walking through the woods after that. Go by yourself."

"Fine, I will. Take my guitar." She shoved it into Piper's arms, and started off down the path and into the woods.

"If you die, it's not my fault!" Piper called after her. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

She walked through the woods alone, slipping her hands into her pockets to keep them warm as she went. The gentle crunch of the leaves under her feet and the quietly rustling of the breeze in the trees were the only sounds of the forest, and she closed her eyes for a brief second, trying to capture the chill of the air and the sounds of the forest in her mind. The path was washed by moonlight.

The sound of footsteps approached behind her, slowing as they came closer. Annabeth turned. Percy Jackson was standing behind her, looking reluctant.

"I didn't realize you were coming this way," he said defensively, and in the light of the moon Annabeth smiled slightly at him.

"Are you going to look at the stars?" she asked softly, like a louder voice would wake up the sleeping world. In the dark, she could just see him nod. She sighed, contemplating. Then—"Well, come on."

She turned and started walking again, hearing him hesitate and then follow her with clumsy footsteps. A few minutes later they immerged in a clearing, surrounded by trees and canopied by a universe of stars. Annabeth lay down in the grass and gazed upwards, watching the stars sparkle. Percy lay down a second later, a few feet away. Even though he was one of the most annoying people on the planet, Annabeth couldn't help but be just a little glad for his presence. The woods at night could be scary.

"Can you recognize the constellations?" asked Annabeth after a beat of silence. She heard the rustle of grass, and when she looked over, Percy was shaking his head. She smiled, and started pointing them out to him, talking in a quiet voice and gesturing to the tiny dots of light in the sky. When she glanced over at him again, he was smiling.

They stared at the sky in silence for a few minutes longer, and Annabeth was just starting to feel sleepy and wonder if she should head back when Percy leapt to his feet. She started, jerking upwards. Percy gave her his most impish grin, and she winced.

"What?"

"I have a game," said Percy, still suspiciously impish. "Do you have your phone?"

Annabeth patted her pocket nervously. "Um. Yeah?"

"Great. Can I borrow it?"

Annabeth pulled her phone into her chest protectively, frowning up at Percy's looming silhouette. "Why?"

She heard his sigh, and he wiggled his outstretched hand. "Just… give it. I promise I won't do anything crazy with it. I just need the flashlight."

"Okay…" Annabeth handed it over, still suspicious.

Percy grabbed her outstretched hand before she could protest. She let out a little squawk, but he pulled her to her feet, and she stared incredulously at his face, dark with shadows. He was still smiling. "Okay, find a star."

Annabeth looked up at the sky, and searched for a star. She picked the brightest one she could see, standing out like a lighthouse in a storm. "I have one."

"Great, now keep your eyes on the star and spin around as fast as you can twenty times."

Focusing on her star, Annabeth stuck out her arms and began to spin in circles, stumbling slightly on uneven earth. She spun, and spun, and finally she got to twenty and started to slow.

"What do I—aghh!"

There was a blinding light in her face, and she was falling, sparks dancing before her eyes. She landed hard on the ground and glared up at Percy, who was holding her cellphone with the flashlight on and doubling over with laughter.

"What was _that?_ " she protested loudly.

Percy was still snorting, and he pressed a hand over his mouth. Annabeth blew a strand of hair out of her face, indignant. "It's a thing," said Percy, his mouth twitching. "You stare at a star, spin twenty times, and then when someone shines a flashlight in your eyes you fall over. Like, _every time_."

Annabeth scrambled to her feet. "Fine, dumbass, let me try." She snatched her phone from his hand, glaring. "Find a star and _spin._ "

Percy scoffed and tilted his head to the sky, turning around in messy circles. When he yelled twenty, Annabeth shone the light in his face and he stumbled back half a step and collapsed. He sat up a second later, swaying slightly with dizziness.

Annabeth grinned. "Hey, that is fun. Do it again."

They spent much longer than was probably healthy spinning in circles and shining the light in each other's faces, falling to the ground every time. When the clock was verging on one in the morning, clouds started drifting in, covering the moon. Annabeth felt the evidence of the first raindrops, and deemed it time to go back. Still laughing slightly, the two stumbled dizzily back through the forest and to their respective cabins, waving goodbye almost drunkenly.

The lights were off in the cabin, and Annabeth snuck in and slipped into her PJs before climbing into bed. As she stared at the ceiling, she couldn't help but think the whole evening seemed impossibly like a dream.

* * *

"That's right, and you little more _needing_ in this scene, Percy. You _want_ this girl. You _need_ this girl."

Percy smiled weakly at Ms. Aphrodite, who was gesturing animatedly, her hands circling. He looked over at Annabeth incredulously. "Right."

"Think about it this way," Ms. Aphrodite said, coming so close to Percy her perfect lips were almost touching the shell of his ear. He shuddered, and Annabeth resisted the urge to laugh. "You've been wanting to hold this girl through this whole scene. You wanted to take her in your arms from the moment you two met, and you know what that feels like now, so it's taking everything in you not to _reach out and take her in your arms._ You can barely resist it."

Percy gulped. He stared at Annabeth for a second, then shook his head quickly, stepping away from their teacher. "Um, yeah. Got—got it." He squinted over at Annabeth. "I can barely resist your feminine allure."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Creepy."

Ms. Aphrodite clapped her hands. "Come on, children, you must _feel_ the scene. Experience it."

"Um." Percy looked down at his script, searching for the line they were on.

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

The majority of the cast was outside playing Grounders on the play structure, and Annabeth couldn't help but glancing out the windows longingly every now and then. She and Percy had been rehearsing the same few lines of a scene for the last hour. Ms. Aphrodite wasn't a bad director, but Annabeth could see she was making Percy uncomfortable. He kept scratching the back of his neck.

 _Good_ , she thought. _He should be uncomfortable._

"Um," said Percy again. "Oh, come on, Sandy."

"That's right," encouraged Ms. Aphrodite. "That's good, Percy, now you take her in your arms."

Percy wrapped his arms loosely around Annabeth's waist, making sure he wasn't actually touching her. Annabeth sighed. She had seen Percy in enough shows to say with reluctant certainty that he was a good actor. But he had trouble getting into a character, and at the moment he was titling his head back to avoid getting in her face, and all she could see was miles of his stubbled neck. His Adam's apple bobbed, and Annabeth resisted the urge to laugh at him. Why did he think he was any competition for her? Ms. Aphrodite tutted him from where she was standing with her hands on her waist. The dress she was wearing flowed to the floor in waves of dusty red.

Percy gulped again.

Annabeth drew in a breath. "Oh for the love of…" She took a firm hold of his arms, feeling muscles under smooth skin, pulling them down so they were resting lightly around her hips in a way that was relaxed and comfortable. She grabbed his chin, tugging his face down so he was looking her in the eyes, their foreheads almost touching. Through the shadows on his face, she thought he might be blushing, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. For such an annoying person, he really was very awkward.

"Just… relax," she hissed, putting a hand on his cheek gently. "Breathe, or… I don't know. You're Danny Zuko. You've done this a million times."

Percy nodded and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was wearing a cocky smirk, and he wiggled his hips closer to her. "C'mon, Sandy don't be like that," he crooned, and Annabeth couldn't help but grin a little.

" _That's_ it," she whispered.

"Yes!" said Ms. Aphrodite, her long hair swishing as she applauded. "Yes, that's grand, that's lovely."

Percy and Annabeth had just broken apart when she said, "Do it again."

Ms. Aphrodite liked the romantic scenes, apparently. Annabeth was forced to spend most of the morning trapped uncomfortably in Percy's arms, trying her best to act professional. Percy still was annoyingly stiff, and he accidently jabbed her in the waist with his fist at one point, making her shriek and step backwards. On the whole, though, it could have been much worse, Annabeth reflected later. Percy was fairly gentle, careful about not invading space. He was also big, and warm and soft. Annabeth thought idly that he could probably give good hugs before she chased the thought from her mind. She had expected to detest working with Percy, but if she forgot about most of his annoying personality, he was decent. At least he didn't stink. He smelled of pool chlorine, and cookies fresh out of the oven.

Before Annabeth could blink, they were on the bus home. There was a chaotic hour of finding forgotten socks and vacuuming various crumbs before everyone could clamber onto the bus with messily packed Duffle bags. Annabeth put her pillow on her lap, and Piper laid down on the bus seat, curling her legs into her chest and placing her head on Annabeth's lap. Absently, Annabeth brushed the soft strands of hair out of Piper's eyes as the bus sped along, and her friend's eyelashes fluttered.

Something hit her in the back of head, and Annabeth jerked, giving an involuntary gasp of pain and turning around to glare at the person behind her. Percy smirked at her, his hand withheld from where he had flicked her. She gave him her best death glare and then faced the front again. A minute later it happened again, then again, and on the fourth time Annabeth spun around so quickly Piper's head toppled off her lap and she sat up jerkily.

" _Stop_ ," said Annabeth, irritated.

"Make me, Annabee." Percy smirked.

"Shove that attitude up your ass, Jackson."

Percy raised a hand to his heart in mock agony. "Ouch, that hurts. Hurts me right here, Anniebeth."

Annabeth was unimpressed. "You woke up my friend, asshole. And I _know_ you know my name." She crossed her arms. "I was starting to think you might be okay, you know."

Percy looked uncomfortable, but grinned at her anyways. "Maybe you're just stuck up."

"You are just the most _immature_ person I know."

"Don't pretend you _know_ me," he scoffed.

Annabeth turned back around, crossing her arms and slumping back down in her seat, determined to ignore Percy for the rest of the ride. She didn't understand the prickle of disappointment in the pit of her stomach. Piper stared at her for a second, then plumped the pillow and snuggled back into Annabeth's lap.

The drive home seemed much too long.

* * *

Rehearsals were in full fledge.

After school, twice a week. Annabeth sometimes felt like she was in the theatre more than she was out of it. In the morning for choir, in fourth period for drama, sometimes at lunch, and of course, her after-school rehearsals. Annabeth loved the theatre. It was fairly small, with bars to hang lights from the ceiling and long black curtains hang behind the stage. The stage itself was old and tattered, paint peeling. Usually, they held the musical on the stage in the gym. The theatre was old and small, and Annabeth smiled every time she walked in through the door.

Mondays they practiced the songs. They would sit in a big circle around the piano, singing along to the smooth music of the piano. Annabeth had her music memorized before anyone else, and she took special pride in sitting up straight in her chair and singing everything from memory. Percy glared at her when she did, and it was a wonderful feeling.

Thursdays they did scene work. It was hard to get into character sometimes, in the theatre with no lights or costumes. Piper broke character six times during a scene, and Mr. D yelled at her. Annabeth lived and breathed Sandy Dubrowski, and sometimes in class her friends hit her because she started putting on the character. They ran the scenes again and again, learning choreography and laughing as they danced in the wrong direction and bumped into each other. Dancing was Annabeth's weak spot, and she practiced in her room when she was supposed to be sleeping, tiptoeing around in fuzzy socks and trying remember which way to turn.

Percy Jackson seemed to be working hard too. He broke character more often than Annabeth did, and stumbled on lines sometimes, but when his character was in place he was fantastic. She got frustrated with him too quickly, but most of the time Percy was pretty easy to work with. At least he let her boss him around. She told him where to look at what to do and how to feel for every romance scene, and he was good once she instructed him. He looked at her in just the right way.

"Alright everyone!"

It was a Thursday evening, and most of the cast had already left for home. Ms. Aphrodite was waltzing around the room clapping her hands as if to get everyone's attention. Annabeth glanced up from her phone. She and Percy were the only students in the room.

"I have very excited news for today," Ms. Aphrodite gushed, waving her armfuls of bangle bracelets. "Today we are working on the opening scene. More importantly, the first _kiss_ scene of the show, isn't that delightful?"

Percy's head shot up, and he met Annabeth's gaze from across the room. She was sure the horror in his face was mirrored in her own expression.

"Up, up, up!" cried their teacher, hips swishing, and Annabeth and Percy both clambered to their feet, walking reluctantly towards the stage.

Annabeth could name some bad kisses she'd had in her life, but she was already sure this one was going to take the cake.

"Um," said Percy, once they were on stage. He was stumbling more than usual, scratching the back of his head and shifting his feet. Annabeth winced. She wished she could slap him instead of kiss him, that would have been easier. More fun too, more likely than not. Annabeth loved stage combat.

Ms. Aphrodite sat down in a chair, sweeping her long hair over one shoulder. She opened the script, and Annabeth wondered absently how she could flip pages with those long nails. She pointed to a line in the script for Percy to start from, and read it out loud. Percy nodded grimly, and Annabeth watched his Adam's apple bob. Slowly, she grinned. He was _nervous_. She could have fun with that.

Percy started his lines, and he stuttered more than usual. Annabeth resisted the urge to reach out and pull him into position as she responded. She wanted to see how this would play out.

He shifted his feet and swallowed again.

"It isn't fair," said Annabeth.

That was the cue line. He was supposed to take her hands gently, tell her he would miss her and what would he do without her. There was supposed to be tenderness, a certain vulnerability. When they had practiced the scene earlier without the kiss, Percy had been all those things. Gentle voice, open face. Today he shuffled and averted his eyes. Annabeth tapped her foot.

His eyes flicked to her face, and Annabeth tried to catch his gaze. It darted away again.

"Percy, dear, we don't have all day," said Ms. Aphrodite from her chair.

Percy muttered something unintelligible, and Annabeth decided to have some fun.

"What's the matter, Jackson?" she smirked. "You never kissed anyone before?"

Percy shook his head quickly. "No, _no_ , it's not that I… I've kissed girls before, _believe_ me."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Then why are so scared?"

"I'm not!"

"Sure."

He met her gaze finally, and they stared at each other for a brief moment. Ms. Aphrodite wasn't saying anything, leaning forwards in her seat, and Annabeth could tell she was enjoying their real life drama just as much as that in the actual show. Annabeth sighed and rolled her eyes. _Screw it._

She grabbed the back of Percy's neck, and pulled him down so his mouth came crashing into hers. He made a muffled noise and flailed for a second, before relaxing into the kiss.

 _Stage kiss_ , thought Annabeth.

It was Percy Jackson she was kissing, on stage, in front of a teacher. Annabeth tried her best to keep her lips pressed firmly together, because kissing Percy Jackson was not in her bucket list, but they drifted apart anyways. Percy tasted of mint, and Annabeth wondered if he had been chewing gum. Involuntarily, she sighed a little bit, and then pulled away with a jerk. Percy was blinking at her.

From the audience, Ms. Aphrodite clapped loudly. "Just lovely, dears, so _real._ Simply gorgeous."

"Great," said Annabeth, wiping her lips off with the back of her hand. "Can we go now?"

"Oh, my dears, no!" cried Ms. Aphrodite. "Absolutely not. That had conviction, sure, but where's the raw _vulnerability_? Where's the _passion?_ "

"Um," stuttered Percy again, looking Annabeth in the eyes. She could see her pink lipstick on his chin, and she reached up to touch her own lips.

Percy looked at his feet, and said his lines again. Then he looked at Annabeth. She raised her eyebrows. He placed one cautious hand lightly on her waist, and then placed the other on her cheek. His hands were warm and rough.

Annabeth's eyes fluttered closed when he leaned in.

His breath was warm on her chin, her lips, inside her mouth, and Annabeth tried to act.

 _Vulnerable. Passion._

His stupid breath was destroying her thoughts, and she didn't feel like Sandy anymore. It usually took a lot of effort to get Annabeth Chase out of her characters, but…

Percy Jackson was _good_ at kissing. She hadn't expected that. She still hated him, though. Why _did_ she hate him?

Percy pulled back, and for a second she could see the character he was playing. He grinned slightly, sweet and vulnerable. Then he blinked, and shook his head, his usual annoying smirk coming back.

"Told you I could kiss," he said, condescending.

 _That_ , Annabeth remembered. That's why she hated him.

She scowled at him and his stupidly good kisses. "You _so_ did not. You looked like someone was holding a gun to your head. Scared little guppy."

He wiped her lipstick off his chin with a casual flick of his thumb. "Maybe I just didn't want to kiss _you_."

She gave a small scoff of protest, and was about to retaliate when Ms. Aphrodite clapped her hands and told them to do it again.

Annabeth lost count of how many times she made them kiss. It was a lot. Annabeth wished more than anything she could want to stop, but Percy's lips were soft and he was warm. Was it wrong to enjoy kissing someone you hated?

He caught up to her when she was walking home that day. Their houses were in the same direction from the school, but usually they walked home after musical at least a block apart, heads down. Annabeth was at an intersection waiting for the light to change when he finally caught her, jogging up behind her panting. He grabbed her arm to steady himself, and she shoved him off.

"Careful!" He rubbed his arm.

"What do want, Percy?" She looked up at the light, willing it to change.

He was grinning, and it irritated her more than anything in the world. "I'm walking you home, obviously. Someone as pretty as you should have an escort at all times."

"Oh my god," Annabeth groaned. "Cut the sexist bullshit, please. I can walk myself home."

"I didn't say it was because you were a girl!" he protested hotly.

"It was implied."

"Nuh-uh. I'm walking with you. No, forget that, we just happen to be going in the same direction."

"That's never been an issue before."

He sighed, trying to put a friendly arm around her shoulder. She shrugged it off, and he looked at ground, slightly dejected. "Just deal with it, okay? Dumbass."

"Asshole," she responded easily, and he grinned.

He followed her almost all the way home, chatting incessantly just to irritate her. Annabeth tried her best to ignore him, walking quickly with her science textbook clasped in her arms, but he continued following her. It had to be another of his dumb pranks, Annabeth realized. Like the time in eight grade where he'd spent an entire week following her around making fart noises every time she did anything, until she snapped and screamed at him in the middle of the cafeteria. They had both gotten a severe talking to for that one.

When they finally reached his turnoff, he patted her on the arm and said a cheerful goodbye before setting off down the street. Annabeth started incredulously after him for a minute, then continued on her way.

She made some food for dinner. She practiced voice for an hour, rehearsed some lines of the play, and tried to do the dance they'd learned the previous week. She did some homework, and corrected a worksheet for one of the kids she was tutoring. When she was washing her face, she paused to look at her lips. They still looked pretty normal. Maybe they were a little pink, a little swollen. A tiny bit tender, perhaps. She shook her head. It was all in her mind.

But as she drifted off to sleep, staring at the reflection of a street light on her ceiling, she couldn't help but relive it all in her head. Stage kisses weren't supposed to be like this. So soft and warm and just… right.

She groaned, burying her head in her pillow, squishing out the memories of stupid Percy and his idiotic kisses. To think this was going to go on for several more _months._

She groaned again.

* * *

The next Monday, Percy followed her home after rehearsal again. It happened again on Thursday, and the Monday after that. He would trail her home, telling jokes and making stupid remarks. She ignored him as much as she could, holding her head high and walking straight and quickly. He continued to follow after her like a stray dog anyways, and Annabeth still hadn't figured out the point of this whole prank. She refused to talk to him and be taken in by it.

She complained about it to Piper and Thalia at lunch one day, as she scooped stew from a thermos. Thalia was laying on her back holding a math textbook over her head, and Piper was slumped against a locker, licking gravy from her fingertips. The gravy fries from the cafeteria were heavenly, and Piper claimed they were better when eaten with fingers.

"I'm telling you, he keeps following me home!" She shook her head, pushing another spoonful of stew into her mouth. Across from her, Piper and Thalia exchanged looks. "It's super weird, he's like a dog. I mean, I _know_ it's another of his jokes but I don't _get_ it."

"You're sure he's joking?" Piper asked carefully. "Maybe he just wants to get to know you?"

"What part of _rivals_ do you not understand? He knows me enough to mess with my life constantly and that's all he needs."

"Screw him," came Thalia's muffled voice. She'd given up on the math and her textbook was on her face at the moment, shielding it from the world.

"I know, I know," Annabeth sighed. "I shouldn't worry about it, he's just trying to mess with—"

"No." Thalia pulled the textbook off her face and glared at Annabeth. Her eyes were the violent blue of the sky at noon. "I mean like, _actually_ screw him."

Annabeth's face contorted in disgust. " _No_ , Thalia. I don't _like_ him. He's a good kisser, I'll give him that, but—"

" _What?"_ Piper shrieked, sitting up so quickly her fries went flying. "You _kissed_ him? Did you somehow forget to tell us this _tiny_ _detail_ in all your ranting?"

"Not like that, Piper!" Annabeth said defensively, her cheeks far too hot. She pressed a hand to her face. "It was for the show, we weren't… I mean it wasn't—"

" _Like that?_ " Thalia asked innocently. She had pulled herself into a sitting position against the locker, and her dark hair was ruffled with static, her leather jacket draped around her shoulders. Annabeth swallowed, nodding weakly.

" _Still._ " Piper slumped back against the locker, almost as dramatic offstage as she was on it. "You can't just kiss your arch rival and not tell us about it! I need details, Annabeth. _Details._ "

"Yeah." Thalia leaned forwards. "Tell us how that mouth works."

Annabeth looked between them. "You guys are gross."

They looked at her expectantly, and she sighed.

"Fine. Um, he's a good kisser? Knows what to do I guess, and—"

"Not good enough," Piper broke in.

Annabeth scratched her head. "His lips are um. Soft?"

Piper and Thalia exchanged knowing grins, and Annabeth groaned in frustration, leaping to her feet and swinging her backpack over one shoulder.

"You know what, I don't need this right now. I'm going to science class to work on the textbook work before until the bell rings." She strutted off down the hall.

"Aw, come on 'bethie, we didn't mean it!" Thalia called half-heartedly after her. Annabeth ignored her.

Rehearsal that evening was choreo for _Summer Nights_ , and Annabeth purposely ignored Piper. It was difficult, because every time Annabeth made accidental eye contact with Piper she would grin widely and wiggle her eyebrows. The most annoying part was it kind of fit in with the scene, so Annabeth couldn't get her told off for it. Annabeth sang as hard as she could, but her mind was elsewhere and she knew it wasn't her best performance. Or rehearsal. Whatever.

Percy seemed to be enjoying it, she noted during his solos. There was a bit of the song where he had to thrust his hips dramatically, and at the beginning of rehearsals he'd looked so awkward doing it that Annabeth burst out laughing in the middle of the song. He glared at her for the rest of the day. Now though, he looked comfortable and in character, and it was still funny but…

Annabeth looked down, feeling her cheeks go pink. She was glad Piper couldn't read her mind, or she would never hear the end of it.

They finished at six that evening, and by the time Annabeth left the building the sun had disappeared below the horizon. Winter was approaching, and Annabeth pulled her coat around herself to cut off the stinging wind that was pushing through her thin clothes.

Percy caught up to her a few minutes later as usual, panting slightly. He grinned at her in his impish way, and she almost didn't have the strength to ignore him.

"You should really just wait for me, you know," he teased.

She didn't answer, staring instead at the cracks in the pavement. The wind cut through her jacket and she was shivering.

She could feel Percy staring at her as they walked. She knew she wasn't walking as fast or as importantly as usual, and he seemed to have noticed. Maybe this was his plan. Get into her head slowly and drive her insane. It wasn't his usual style of prank, though. Usually his pranks played out almost immediately and as loudly as possible. It was hers that were quieter and slowly drove him insane.

Maybe he was learning from her. That was a horrible thought.

She shivered again.

Percy cleared his throat, and then he was draping his scarf around her shoulders. Annabeth stopped, her hands flying to the scarf. She knew he had stopped beside her, and she almost looked at him then. Instead, she tipped her head up high and marched all the way home, Percy on her heels. He didn't talk at her today, and she wasn't sure if she was glad or uneasy.

He took his turnoff without saying a word, and Annabeth only paused for a moment, staring at the back of his head in a moment of brief contemplation.

"Wait!" she called. He turned to face her. It was the first time she had spoken to him since the first day he walked her home. She took the end of the scarf and pulled it off, holding it out to him. "You forgot your scarf."

She caught a glimpse of his smile. It wasn't his usual smirk, but a wide, crooked grin, and it made him look more boyish. The light of the streetlight above him glinted off his teeth and left shadows on his face, and he looked like a stranger.

"Keep it," he said, and turned on his heel.

When Annabeth got home, she threw the scarf in her hamper so she would never have to look at it again. Then she buried her head in her pillow. It had been a long day.

* * *

Their routine continued like that, with his walking her home each day and her ignoring him. One Thursday evening she opened the front door with Percy on her heels, only to stop in her tracks. Percy almost walked into her.

"It's snowing," she said in surprise, staring up at the dark sky. Fat, fluffy flakes of snow were tumbling from above, piling in already thick drifts and blanketing the world in white. They nestled in Annabeth's curls and stood out against Percy's dark hair like dandruff. Annabeth held back her laughter.

Percy followed her gaze upwards, nodding somberly with his hands in his pockets. "Yep, that's what they call it when those little white things fall from the sky."

"Shut up."

They started their trek home, and Annabeth couldn't help the spring in her step and as she walked down the path, glancing around eagerly as the soft snowflakes dripped down around her. The streetlamps that lined the roads made the drifts sparkle with orange light, and Annabeth paused, reaching down to scoop up a handful of snow. It was cold and wet, and soaked through her mittens. She turned to Percy to grin widely, and he blinked at her, surprised. Suddenly, she remembered she didn't usually walk beside him, didn't even spare him a second glance. But today the world was blanketed with snow and all the edges were gone, so somehow it was okay.

Pulling off her mittens, Annabeth reached down to a drift that had gathered beside the sidewalk and formed it into a ball of hard snow. Percy was looking the other way, watching the snow build on apartment buildings across the streets. With a wicked grin, Annabeth launched the snowball at the back of his head.

Percy yelped, stumbling when the snowball hit. The snowball shattered into pieces, which tumbled down the back of Percy's shirt. Annabeth cackled loudly as he danced around, swatting at the back of his jackets. He paused, his hands still on the back of his coat, to glare at her.

"Rude. You're a child."

Annabeth grinned, ignoring the statement and choosing to reply with, "You have snow all over your head."

Scowling, Percy shook his head like a dog. The smirk dropped from Annabeth's face when he leaned down to pack snow into his hands. She backed away, holding up her hands. "Percy, you wouldn't, you wouldn't—no, no—gah!" She lifted her arms over her face on instinct, scrunching her eyes shut and turning away. Percy's snowball hit her arm and sent snow flying. Annabeth lowered her arms triumphantly. " _Hah!_ You missed me."

"Not this time," Percy said, leaning down. He scooped up an entire armful of snow and ran straight at Annabeth, and she screamed, abandoning her composure and sprinting away down the pathway. The two of them took off down the city sidewalk, slick with snow, Annabeth shrieking and Percy running after her with snow spilling out of his arms. They passed several scandalized pedestrians and almost knocked over an old man with a walker before Percy caught her, wrapping one arm around her waist and smushing snow into her face with the other. Annabeth squealed, kicking her legs.

A second later they were both standing under a tree, panting. Annabeth had rivers of snow-water dripping down her cheeks, and she glared at Percy. "You are the _worst!_ " Her voice shook with unshed laughter.

Percy grinned easily, and for a moment it was the innocent, boyish grin she'd seen a few days earlier, wide and true. "Thank you, I take very much pride in it."

She rolled her eyes, almost fondly. "I am so getting you back for that."

"Oh no," Percy said.

"Oh _yes_. There is a world of snow out here just waiting to go down your back."

"That's not happening." He started to back away.

"It's just how it works around here."

"No. _No!_ "

And they were off again, weaving though people and yelling at each other, Annabeth on Percy's heels. It took them twice as long to get to their usual turnoff, and when they did they both collapsed into a snowbank panting, staring up to where snowflakes fell in endless mesmerizing spirals. Annabeth sighed.

"Annabeth?" asked Percy, and she lifted her head.

"Yeah?"

"You—you're alright, you know that?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Annabeth smiled a little, dropping her head back onto the snow and feeling it soak into her hair. "You're kind of decent, too. I mean, occasionally."

She could almost hear Percy's grin. He grinned so much, one day his face was going to break. "Gee, thanks."

"No problem."

They lay in silence for another moment, and then Percy struggled to his feet with a groan, dusting snow off his clothes and stretching slightly. Annabeth heard a joint crack and winced, closing her eyes as he started to walk away. He was almost out of sight when she opened them and called after him.

"Hey—Percy?"

He turned around, squinting back at her. "What?"

"You said my name right."

"No I didn't!" His grin betrayed him.

"You did."

"Never."

And he turned away, taking a few more steps and disappearing around the corner. After a moment, Annabeth sighed, standing up and staring for a minute at where Percy had disappeared. Then she shook her head, and started home.

* * *

It was a Thursday afternoon, and the theatre was hot and smelly. They had been practicing choreography intently for the past hour, and Annabeth had long since abandoned the knitted sweater she'd been wearing, choosing to dance instead in the plain tank top underneath. It had a hole by the shoulder and sweat stains under the arms, but Annabeth couldn't find it in her to care. She was simply too tired.

They had hired a dancing coach to teach them some of the more complicated numbers, a tiny woman who Annabeth knew to be the sister of one of the teachers who worked backstage. Annabeth was pretty sure her name was Artemis, and she had soft dark hair and shining silver eyes. She moved like a woodland creature, dancing around with gentle movements and repositioning them as they went. She danced in bare feet instead of shoes and Annabeth thought she was incredible. She considered trying to find out if she could take lessons from her.

"Music, please," said Artemis, glancing up at the booth, and holding her arms out in the opening position for the students to copy. "Apollo, I am talking to _you_. _Music_."

Apollo, her brother, helped with tech and lighting for most of the shows, and he simply grinned lazily at her stern expression and tapped the play button with a flick of his wrist. Annabeth had always liked his sunny attitude too, though it was very different from that of his sister.

The music filled the room, lyrics over top to give the singers a break. Artemis was counting over the music in her calming voice, dancing along with them and waving an arm like a conductor. Annabeth spun the wrong way, stumbling slightly and feeling a bead of sweat drip down onto her neck. Piper, who was beside her, had every move perfected already. She had been taking dance since she was three and Annabeth liked to say it was the only thing she was definitely better than Annabeth at.

(Piper disagreed.)

Feeling discouraged, Annabeth glanced over to her other side. Percy was dancing just behind her, and Annabeth almost laughed out loud. He was staring cross-eyed at his feet, holding his arms out like he was on a tightrope. He was biting his lip in concentration, and as she watched he placed a foot in the wrong place and wobbled dangerously, his eyes widening like saucers. She turned back to the front, shaking her head.

Percy seemed to be migrating forwards throughout the dance, and within a few minutes he was right beside her. He looked over and gave her a distracted smirk. Within a few more minutes he was in front of her, and Annabeth sighed and rolled her eyes. She shared a look with Piper, and then stuck her foot into the middle of the small square he seemed to have created with his feet. Percy glanced up at her in confusion, catching his foot on hers and stumbling forwards. He caught himself from falling and looked at her, his expression scandalized. His eyes screamed mirth.

"I'm totally getting you back for that, Abbibeth," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Annabeth," she couldn't resist correcting. "And sure, you have fun with that."

Artemis clapped her hands, and they all turned back to the front as the music restarted. Annabeth looked down at Piper's feet and tried to copy her smooth steps, tripping a little bit and grabbing Piper's arm for support. She started to get the hang of it, grinning and swinging her arms. Beside her, Percy stumbled again and she snorted smugly.

"One, two, three, four," Artemis said loudly, clapping her arms to the rhythm. Percy flailed wildly, and Annabeth rolled her eyes. Percy didn't usually suck this much.

"You're starting on the wrong foot," she hissed out of the corner of her mouth, and Percy looked down and shuffled his feet into position.

"Alright, that's all for today," said Artemis, waving her hand to stop the music and pulling her loose top back up over her shoulder. There was a collective sigh of relief, and the chorus members scattered, stuffing things into backpacks that were sprawled on the chairs around them and pulling sweaters back on. Annabeth dropped onto a chair and heaved a sigh of relief. The main cast still had to stay for scene work, but at least the dancing had gone over without any major injuries.

Mr. D slouched into the room a few minutes later, wearing an overbearingly loud Hawaiian print shirt, covered in bright pineapples. He was carrying a suspicious-looking water bottle, and he glared at them all as he sat down, waving an arm lazily to start the scene.

They got through several scenes without mishap, and Piper welcomed Annabeth to the school, prancing and squeaking as Frenchie. Annabeth glanced around in wonder, trying to imagine the peeling walls of the theatre were a brand-new school filled with new possibilities and wonder. She couldn't wait until they had a real set.

They got almost all the way to scene where Percy and Annabeth—Sandy and Danny—reunited, when Piper forgot a line and Annabeth walked in the wrong direction. Percy stuck his head out of the wing and asked if it was his cue, and a boy Annabeth thought was called Jason grabbed his arm and pulled him back offstage.

Mr. D threw his pen across the room. "No, no, _no_! You're doing it _wrong._ Do it correctly, and show me I am not wasting my time trying to make a somewhat decent show out of you imbeciles."

The boys immerged sheepishly from backstage, and Annabeth glanced over at Percy, who grimaced back at her. Only when she turned away did Annabeth realize it seemed like a much friendlier gesture than it should.

"Okay," said Annabeth, staring to move slowly across the stage. "Okay, come on everybody, let's reset! Take it from the top, and—"

As she crossed in front of Percy, he stuck out his leg, and Annabeth caught her foot on his outstretched limb, going sprawling to the floor. She stumbled for moment, trying to land, but instead she fell on the side of her foot, twisting her ankle and losing her balance. She flung out an arm as she fell, hitting a pile of boxes that crashed to the floor.

For a minute, there was a resounding silence.

Piper rushed forwards, holding her hands out and helping pull Annabeth to her feet. Annabeth tried to put weight on her foot and squawked, almost falling again. Piper held tightly onto her arm and she regained her balance.

"Is your foot okay?" Piper asked, concerned, busying herself by brushing off Annabeth's shirt and trying to pull pieces of hair out of her face. Annabeth batted her hand away, turning to glare at Percy. His eyes were wide.

"Annabeth, I didn't—" he began, but she interrupted him.

"That was _not_ cool." Annabeth's voice was low and Percy gulped. "I know that we play pranks on each other, and I know that you think it's _funny,_ but there is a line and that _crosses_ it."

The room was silent, everyone listening in with bated breath. From his desk, Annabeth could hear Mr. D crunching loudly on nuts from a plastic bag on the desk.

"I know that I tripped you earlier, Percy, but I did _not_ purposely injure you by sending you _flying_ across the room, and I don't know you taught you that hurting people just because you don't like them is _okay_ but it's _not!_ It's not at all, you asshole. You _asshole_ , I can't believe you did that, I can't— _ow!_ " She tried to put weight on her foot again and almost stumbled. Piper's nails dug into her arm.

She glared at Percy, expecting his mouth to twitch up in that telltale smirk. But he continued starting at her with wide eyes, completely serious. She sighed and tugged on Piper's sleeve. Piper understood immediately and wrapped an arm around Annabeth's waist, helping her stagger across the theatre and towards the door. The room unfroze and everyone was moving again, gathering into clumps and whispering. Annabeth glanced back to a couple of them sending pointed looks in her direction and in Percy's. Percy didn't seem to care. He was still staring after like he was trying to decide whether or not to follow. He looked almost guilty, but Annabeth shook it off. It was a façade to make him look innocent, she knew that. What else could she expect of him?

Her ankle turned out to be mildly sprained. She would have to wear a brace for a week or two, but would be otherwise alright. Piper drove her home that afternoon and she spotted Percy walking alone along the way, head bowed and hands in his pockets. She turned and looked the other way until they were past him.

"Look, Annabeth," Piper said softly, turning the wheel as they reached a corner. "I know you're mad—and you should be, that was a sucky thing to do—but you have to consider that maybe he didn't—"

"Oh, he did," Annabeth said, stony faced. "He meant all of it. That boy just—he can't _think_ before he does things. Every time I start to think—well. It doesn't matter."

"What?"

"Just—every time I start to think that maybe he could be okay he—he does something like this again."

"Yeah." Piper pulled into a space outside Annabeth's house and parked the car. "Yeah, I get it."

* * *

The next morning, Percy was leaning against her locker when she arrived wearing a thick black ankle brace and limping slightly. Annabeth glared at him, and he moved aside so she could open her locker.

"What do you want?" she snapped, and he grimaced slightly, then grinned

"I was thinking I would carry your books for you. Or your backpack. Take some of the stress off your pretty ankles."

Annabeth paused to stare at him suspiciously. "I'm okay, thanks." She said stiffly, pulling her books out and trying to step around him. He blocked her path.

"No, really." He took one end of one her textbooks and she pulled it out of his hands. "This was all my fault. You should let me help."

"Why?"

"Because… it's a half-decent thing to do."

"Well, I said _no_ _thanks_ ," said Annabeth, finally succeeding in pulling her textbook out of his hands and starting down the hall. He followed her all the way to her first class, bouncing behind her like the first days he'd followed her home and trying to insist on things he could do to help her out. She managed to lose him for the rest of the morning, but he was standing outside her drama class end of third period, and continued bothering her until she gave him a textbook to carry so he would shut up. He skipped along behind her, and Annabeth couldn't help but think again that he was like an easily pleased puppy.

She decided to take it to her advantage when he found her after fourth period, unloading her many textbooks and her backpack into his arms. He staggered under the weight as she struggled to keep up with her, and Annabeth couldn't help but smirk at the looks she got. It felt a bit like having a servant.

It wasn't a Monday or a Thursday, but Percy walked her home anyways, and Annabeth let him carry everything of hers he could fit into his arms. He was quite strong, she could see, and he didn't complain once all the way to the turnoff. Finally, he handed her possessions back, sighing with relief.

"Why are you doing this?" Annabeth asked finally, as he handed her back the last textbook.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know. Feel like I should, I guess."

"That's bullshit," Annabeth noted. "You never do anything that you should. What's the real reason you're being so helpful?"

Percy sighed, scratching the back of his neck and looking down at his toes. "Um, I don't know. I guess I just… I don't like being the reason people are hurt."

"Oh." And then, " _Oh_. Um, okay." Annabeth said, flustered. Percy nodded awkwardly, and started away. Annabeth called his name before he could turn away completely. "Hey Percy?"

He turned back to her, questioning.

"Thanks."

His face broke out in a grin, and he gave her another nod before he bounced away.

She was still watching him when he turned the corner, and he turned back to look at her. She gave him a tiny smile, and was returned a wide grin. She slipped her backpack over her shoulder and continued home.

* * *

"That is the most adorable costume I have ever seen," Piper gushed as soon as Annabeth came out of the bathroom stall.

Annabeth spun around, trying to see the back of the skirt. "Really? You think so? It's a little… I don't know."

"Are you kidding?" Piper asked, rushing over to straighten Annabeth's skirt and tuck in her blouse. "It is so totally Sandy. And that poodle skirt is adorable, you could totally be a fifties girl. You just need a high ponytail and some Elvis in the background and you are _perfect._ "

"You really think so?" Annabeth glanced self-consciously over at the mirror, pulling on her hair. Piper rolled her eyes.

" _Obviously_. You look super cute. I wish I got a cool costume like that, I have to find my own. Perks of being the lead, I guess. Hey, have you seen Percy's costume yet?"

Annabeth blinked at the sudden topic change. "Um. No?"

"Oh, it's amazing, he looks _super_ hot. Like, I don't know why he doesn't wear leather all the time because it looks _so good_ on him."

"Really?" said Annabeth, distracted.

"Totally. Also. Have you seen _Jason?_ "

Annabeth abandoned the frayed ends of her curls and turned back to Piper, perching on the edge of the sink. "Which one is Jason, again?"

Piper scoffed. "Only the super cute one." She sighed at Annabeth's confused look. "The blonde. Blue eyes? Playing Kenickie?"

"Oh, him." Annabeth reached into the pocket of the huge poodle skirt that one of the sewing students had made and found a matching bow. She turned back to the mirror to tie it on over her head. "He's cute."

"Right? I've been trying to get him to ask me out for like, a month, but he hasn't. I mean I'm not exactly surprised, have you _seen_ me?"

"Frequently," said Annabeth dryly. "You're a goddess."

It was true; Piper's soft, chocolate-brown hair fell in uneven chunks down her back and she had one of the most unique fashion senses Annabeth had even known, but she still managed to be the most radiant person in most rooms. Something about the way her eyes were always shifting and the soft brightness in her smile. Today she was wearing an oversized flannel shirt that fell almost to her knees over a tank top advertising a band Annabeth knew she didn't like.

Piper smiled affectionately and draped an arm around Annabeth, dropping her head down on her Annabeth's shoulder. "That's all you, babe. You're beautiful."

Annabeth patted Piper's arm, and smiled at their reflections in the mirror for a moment. She broke the silence a minute later with a sigh. "Okay, well, I should probably go to the theatre and see what the costume directors think. Hazel's doing it again this year, remember her?"

"Oh, yeah! I loved her, she was just the sweetest thing."

Annabeth hummed in agreement. "I heard she might work on lights too, which would be cool."

Piper shut the door after them as they set off down the hall. "She should, she's my favourite of the backstage crew. He makeup skills are also what I aspire to be."

"Totally, right?"

Annabeth's costume turned out to be huge hit with the costume tech people, and she found herself doing lots of spinning around onstage and strutting about while they tested out different lights on the costume and sketched out potential hairstyles. Piper left while Hazel was kneeling on the ground beside Annabeth pinning the skirt. She jumped onto the stage and kissed Annabeth on the cheek before disappearing out the door with a wave. Hazel finally finished with the skirt just as everyone was leaving. Annabeth went into the drama office backstage to change while Hazel turned off the lights and told Annabeth to lock up when she left.

It was dark backstage, and Annabeth ran her fingers over the rough brick of the wall as she felt her way to the office where she could change and hang up her costume. The door was still open and she pushed gently through, freezing at what she found.

Percy was standing in the middle of the room, obviously halfway through changing. He was wearing very tight leather pants and no shirt and staring at her in surprise. Annabeth blinked at him in frozen shock for a moment before coming to her senses.

"Oh, God." She spun around, flustered, bumping her elbow on the door handle and bringing her hands to her cheeks to find them as hot as flames. "I am so sorry, I didn't know—I mean I wasn't trying—I didn't mean to… I'm just—I'm just going to leave, okay, I—"

She tried the doorknob, which had swung shut in her frenzy. It was locked. She frowned and tried again, pulling at the doorknob and turning it both ways before stopping and slowly turning around, her hands sliding off the doorknob.

"It's um. It's locked," she said sheepishly. The room was pitch black, the only light coming from a small window to the hall in one corner. She could just make out Percy's outline, and he blinked at her.

"What?"

"Uh," Annabeth faltered. "It's locked? I bumped it closed by accident, and it's locked? I tried to get it open but it… wouldn't… sorry," she trailed off.

Percy fumbled with something for a minute, and then his cellphone flashlight was shining in her face. She tried to bat the light away from her eyes, then looked up at Percy. He was frowning in the dim, the light reflecting off his bare chest. Annabeth flushed, looking down at the floor. She had always known he had some muscles under the loose t-shirts he wore, but she had never imagined all the swimming he did would leave those thick muscles twisting over his shoulders and that defined chest. He probably had abs too, she thought, squinting unconsciously. Probably if she could touch his stomach she would feel them.

She shook her head. _Gross_ _, Annabeth_.

"So… we're stuck here?" Percy asked, confused. Annabeth nodded glumly, and continued staring at the floor.

"I'm sorry," she supplied.

Percy leaned back against the wall, scratching his head. "That's okay. Do you… do you wanna call out? See if anyone hears us?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Everyone left. I was the last one there—hey, listen, do you want to—put a shirt on, or something?"

Percy grinned, and Annabeth caught a flash of white teeth. "Why? Does this make you—" he stuck a ridiculous pose, "—uncomfortable?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Sure."

"You're no fun." Percy knelt down on the ground and Annabeth watched him feel around for his shirt. She pulled out her phone and shone the flashlight on the ground to help. The light reflected off Percy's bare back and she looked away. After a minute, Percy sat back up again. "I can't find it."

" _What!?"_

"I can't find my shirt!" Percy repeated. "It's gone! I must have kicked it into the hall or something by accident."

"Well you can't just not wear _any_ shirt."

"Why?" Percy protested. "It's hot in here. Besides, I don't mind if you see me shirtless."

"Well, _I_ mind," Annabeth grumbled.

"What was that?"

She shook her head, sliding down the wall with a groan. "I can't believe this, I just can't believe this."

"It's _your_ fault," Percy's voice told her through the dark. "You're the one who knocked the door closed."

"It's your fault you were in here shirtless with the door wide open where anyone could get in."

Percy crawled over to her. "You're sure it's locked?"

"Positive," said Annabeth. "You can try it if you want to."

Percy stood up on his knees and Annabeth stared up at him tiredly. He grabbed the doorknob in both hands and rattled it aggressively. When nothing happened, he abandoned the doorknob and started banging on the door.

"Help! _Help!"_ he yelled through the door, and Annabeth joined in after a moment. For a few minutes, both of them called for help until Percy retreated back into a corner and they both slumped miserably against the walls. Annabeth pulled out her phone and texted Piper.

 ** _6:04pm_** **Annabeth:** Piper help

 ** _6:04pm_** **Annabeth:** Piper

 ** _6:05pm_** **Annabeth:** Piper

 ** _6:05pm_** **Annabeth:** I did a really dumb thing

Piper responded a few minutes later with a loud buzz, and Annabeth scooped up her phone in a rush to see the response.

 ** _6:11pm_** **Piper:** Oh no what did u hook up with Percy or something

 ** _6:11pm_** **Annabeth:** What

 ** _6:11pm_** **Annabeth:** No

 ** _6:11pm_** **Annabeth:** I locked myself in the drama office with him

 ** _6:12pm_** **Piper:** Wait whAT HOW?

 ** _6:12pm_** **Annabeth:** It's a long story I was going in there to change and he wasn't wearing a shirt and I accidentally knocked the door shut and now we're both stuck in here together

 ** _6:12pm_** **Annabeth:** It's very dark in here

 ** _6:13pm_** **Annabeth:** HE'S NOT WEARING A SHIRT PIPER

 ** _6:14pm_** **Piper:** Wtf

 ** _6:14pm_** **Annabeth:** I KNOW!

 ** _6:14pm_** **Annabeth:** Stupidest thing I've ever done

 ** _6:14pm_** **Annabeth:** Come let us out please?

 ** _6:16pm_** **Piper:** Fine. Coming.

Annabeth sighed in relief and abandoned her phone beside her. Percy glanced up.

"Piper is coming to save us," Annabeth informed him. Through the dim light, she could just see him nod. "She lives like, twenty minutes away so we should be stuck here for a half hour at most."

"Great," said Percy. They fell silent, and Annabeth picked up her phone. It was running low on battery and the dark drama office barely had enough service to do anything. Annabeth flipped through Instagram for a few minutes, almost glad when she was finally interrupted by a loud outburst from the other end of the room.

"We're going to die in here!" Percy burst out, slumping backwards onto the floor. Annabeth glanced up from her phone, her finger poised mid scroll.

"I see why you're a drama student," she noted dryly, and Percy glared at her.

"You got us into this mess in the first place, so you don't get to talk."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine."

They settled back into silence, sitting in opposite corners of the room. Percy had placed his phone on the floor between them with the flashlight on, shining up to the ceiling, and Annabeth stared at the round, bright light it produced. She fumed silently to herself. She had gotten them into this stupid mess. How was it even possible to get yourself locked in a drama office with your worst enemy?

Annabeth glanced over at him. He was frowning in concentration, tying his shoelaces in knots. Was he really her enemy anymore?

To tell the truth, Annabeth wasn't even sure how to describe Percy Jackson any more. He was arrogant and loud a lot of the time, but sometimes she got the impression it was more of a cover for the sweet, dorky interior he sometimes let shine through. She talked to him now sometimes on the way home, and it turned out it wasn't just an empty shell full of evil and pranks. He liked to swim, and apparently he loved his mom's chocolate chip cookies more than life itself. He talked about his mom a lot, and Annabeth could tell he really loved her.

Percy never talked about his dad, and Annabeth hadn't gotten the courage to ask him. She got the impression that his dad was gone, that he didn't like to talk about it, and she didn't want to ask him for fear of making him crumble.

"Do you want a piece of gum?" Percy asked from across the room, and Annabeth's head snapped up to look at him. She shook her head.

"No, thanks."

He nodded silently, and unwrapped a piece of gum for himself. Annabeth listened to him chew for a few minutes, then shut her phone off, scooting over so she was sitting across from him, a couple feet between them. He looked up at her in surprise.

"On second thought, gum would be nice, yeah," she said, holding out a hand. He grinned his youthful grin, pulling the package back out of his pocket and handing it to her. She pulled out of stick of gum and stuck it in her mouth, handing it back. They chewed in silence for a few beats, then Annabeth broke it.

"Tell me about the first time you did a stage kiss."

"What?" Percy asked, taken aback.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You've obviously done it before, you're a good kisser. Tell me where you got that experience."

Percy stuck his tongue out like he was thinking, shifting almost unconsciously towards Annabeth like what he was about to say was a big secret. "Um, well. In the eighth grade I was in a theatre company and I had to kiss this girl called Rachel for a scene."

"Yeah?" prompted Annabeth, leaning closer.

"Yeah," said Percy. "It was my—my first kiss ever, actually. I was super nervous. I couldn't stop sweating and she took my hands and said _you're clammy_."

Annabeth laughed out loud, and Percy grinned at his lap like he was holding back his own laughter. "It wasn't great, no. She pretty much told me I was a horrible kisser after the first try. But then she told me she would help me practice, and so, you know. That wasn't so bad."

"Wait, wait." Annabeth wiped at the corner of her eyes, still laughing. "Is this that—Rachel Dare or something that you told everyone was your girlfriend but no one believed you?"

"What I think I actually said was that _we kissed_ , but everyone just took that to mean that I had an imaginary girlfriend."

Annabeth nodded, skeptical. "Yep. Sure."

"I don't deserve to be subjected to this abuse."

"Of course not."

Percy put his elbows on his knees and leaned into Annabeth, so his face was only a couple of inches from hers. She blinked, feeling the warmth of his breath on her nose. "Your turn," he said. "Tell me all about your first stage kiss. Or just, you know. Actual kiss?"

"Yeah, well," said Annabeth, embarrassed. "They were pretty close together actually. Same guy."

"But not the same kiss?"

"No, no," she said hastily. "Um, I was in a show in the tenth grade. I was in this company that I'd been with for a few years, so I got one of the leads, and the other was this guy named, um. Luke Castellan. He was a junior or senior year, I think. I had to kiss him in the show, but, uh, we really hit it off before that, and one day during break we…" She laughed nervously, burying her face in her hands.

Percy pulled on her arm, and when she looked up he was grinning eagerly at her like a small child. His eyes were dark in the dim light, and Annabeth could the light of his cellphone flashlight reflecting off his bare skin. He was so close, she could feel the heat radiating off his skin.

He pulled on her sleeve again. "Tell me the rest of the story! What did you do during break?"

Annabeth laughed, still somewhat nervous though she didn't know why. "Well, we snuck into the main theatre. It's usually locked… it _was_ locked, but there are a lot of different ways to get back there and we found one that wasn't, and uh. We made out. Behind the curtain on the mainstage of a pretty big theatre school."

Percy nodded, grinning. "Go Annabeth."

"Yeah, it was… interesting. He kept telling me that he was doing it for me. To teach me for when we had to kiss onstage. But I really liked him, actually and we dated for a bit. He was a pretty good kisser."

"What happened?" Percy asked, and Annabeth winced.

"Well, we were dating for a bit and then he just… stopped. Talking to me. Acting like I existed. Ghosted me completely, ignored me at all the rehearsals, and it wasn't—it was not great." She swallowed, remembering. After a minute she realized Percy's hand was still on her arm. He moved his hand down her arm and took her hand, and she tried to decide what colour his eyes were. She couldn't tell, not in a dark room lit by a cellphone flashlight.

"That sucks," Percy said, squeezing her hand, and she could tell he meant it. "I mean, that's a really awful thing to do. And he had no reason? Wow, okay. That's stupid. I could never to that. Not to someone like _you_. I mean, not to anyone, but…"

Annabeth sniffed slightly. "What about me?"

"Nothing, just… you're cool."

"Strong words coming from an enemy."

"Are we, though?"

Annabeth looked up finally, meeting his gaze. There was an intensity to it that made something deep in her stomach flutter. "Are we what?"

He was tracing patterns on the back of her hand. It felt nice. "Enemies. Have we ever really been enemies, Annabeth?"

Distracted, she shook her head. "I—I don't think we have. Not really."

Percy smiled, just a bit. "I'm glad."

Annabeth looked at the floor and said, "Do you have all your lines memorized?"

Percy dropped her hand and sighed loudly, slumping back against the wall " _No,_ it's just so hard. I get distracted so easily; I'll concentrate for like two minutes and then it's like _oh, I should eat a cookie now_ , and then I go to get one and four hours later it's time to go to sleep."

Annabeth blinked. "Um. Okay."

He grinned at her, peering down over his nose. "Sorry. It's a very dramatic part of my life. Hey,"—he swung forwards suddenly, so he was directly in front of her again—"you're smart. I know you don't really like me but… do you think you could—maybe—help me? With my lines?" He looked suddenly nervous, like he regretted asking already.

Annabeth smiled, holding her hand out. "Phone?"

"What?" Percy looked puzzled.

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, if we're going to practice lines together I might need to text you."

"Oh. Okay."

Someday, that grin was going to split his face in half. She was sure of it.

Annabeth punched her phone number into his phone, and then handed back. For a second, he stared down at it, then he started typing. After a moment he looked up at her triumphantly, and her phone buzzed in her lap. Rolling her eyes, she picked it up. She didn't have any contact info for Percy in her phone, and she quickly added it in.

 ** _6:40pm_** **Dork:** Help! i am stuck in a room with a crazy person!1

 ** _6:40pm_** **Annabeth:** Learn to type, dumbass

Across from her, Percy laughed, and she glanced up affectionately. He was smiling down at his phone, the light brightening his face, typing a vigorous response she was sure she would feel buzz in her lap in a minute. She would never have imagined this a few months ago; sitting across from Percy Jackson—a _shirtless_ Percy, who hadn't even _tried_ very hard to find his shirt—laughing over dumb text messages. There were lots of things Annabeth had never thought about Percy Jackson before this year.

She was getting too into the mindset of her character, Annabeth thought, because she was trying to remember what his hair felt like. Had she really never touched it, in all the times Ms. Aphrodite had made them practice? She imagined sticking her fingers in it, running them through his silky hair and seeing whether it was as soft as it looked. Wrapping the strands around her fingers and pulling him closer. How much would change, really, if she kissed him as Annabeth instead of Sandy?

Her phone buzzed in her lap, but Annabeth didn't check it. Percy looked up with a frown when she didn't respond. "I sent you a text, Avabeth. It's very rude not to answer your texts."

His frown was so ridiculously lopsided. She didn't notice it when he smiled. Or when their lips were pressed together.

"Annabeth? You okay?"

She was still wondering what would happen if she kissed him when the door swung open.

Both Percy and Annabeth fell backwards, impulsively shielding their eyes with their arms. Piper's looming silhouette stood in the doorframe, unimpressed. Annabeth sat up again after a moment, rubbing sparks out of her eyes.

"Piper!" she gasped, scrambling to her feet and trampling the thoughts that had seemed normal when the room was dark. "Thank God, you're here to save us _finally._ I'm starving."

Piper leaned down and scooped something off the ground, tossing it at Percy. Annabeth glanced back, watching him sheepishly pull his shirt back on over his shoulders. Shame. He had nice shoulders.

"I'll never understand why it's possible to lock yourself _inside_ an office," Piper said, rattling the doorknob.

Annabeth shrugged. "I think it opens if you have the key."

"Yeah, did you know that the key was literally in the doorknob on the other side of the door?"

"Oh yeah," said Percy, and the girls turned to look at him. "That would be my fault. I left it there when I was changing. I didn't think anyone was going to knock it _shut_."

Annabeth glared at him. "And you let _me_ take all the blame!"

Beside them, Piper clapped her hands. "Alright children, don't fight. Though I know we all _want_ to be stuck in the school at nearly seven at night I have places I need to be. I will give both of you morons rides home if you're ready in five, go, go, _go!"_

Annabeth clambered into the car five minutes later, after a dramatic race through the school to gather backpacks and coats. She got there first, managing to claim shotgun, so when Percy opened the door with a triumphant yell of victory she was already there smirking at him from the front seat. He sat behind her and grumbled all the way home, kicking the back of her seat at random intervals. Piper dropped Percy off in front of the tall apartment building he lived in, and then turned back to Annabeth, who was staring glumly out of the window.

"You want to talk about?" she asked, carefully pulling the car out of its parking space.

Annabeth shook her head.

Piper nudged her arm, grinning. "Aw, come on. You guys were sitting really close when I opened that door. Like, you were seriously close to that boy, Annabeth, and did you _see_ those muscles, I—"

"Piper," Annabeth broke in, speaking to the window. "I really—I really don't want to talk about it."

"Why not?" Piper laughed, still playful. "We can admire a good-looking guy together, can't we? I mean, it's not like…wait. Annabeth, _wait_. Do you—do you _like_ him?"

Annabeth sighed, shrugging. Behind her, she felt Piper's gasp.

"Oh, Annabeth, I was kidding, I didn't know that you actually—you're not serious?"

"I still don't want to talk about it. Just—just take me home, okay?"

She saw Piper nod, lips pursed, out of the corner of her eye.

Piper dropped her in front of her own apartment building a minute later with a quick goodbye before speeding off. Annabeth watched her disappear before she lugged her backpack into the house.

When finally she was in the safety of her room, she collapsed onto her bed without even taking her shoes off and sighed loudly into the pillow.

She didn't understand how so much could change so quickly.

* * *

For the next couple of days, Annabeth found reasons to duck out of the way every time Percy Jackson came into view. They passed each other on the stairs most days in between fourth and fifth period, and Annabeth suddenly found she had been looking forwards to that moment far too much. They had a little routine they'd sunk into; Percy would squint at her and mutter _Sandy_ as he passed by, and after a few days of confusion while she tried to decide whether or not it was a compliment, she started retaliating by narrowing her own eyes and hissing _Danny_ right back at him. The only problem with this routine was that Annabeth could not squint without scrunching up her entire face, and Percy laughed at her, so she eventually resorted to sticking out her tongue.

She had to end the whole routine, Annabeth decided a couple days after the drama office incident. So she started taking the other stairs up to her fifth period class. It took another minute and she had to jog most days to get to class before the bell, but at least she didn't have to deal with Percy's perfect squint. She just didn't understand how he dropped his eyelids down so casually without scrunching up his whole face.

He was harder to avoid on the walks home. She reverted to not talking to him again, even though she was desperate to know everything that was going on in his life. She held her head high and walked straight, feeling her heart ache at the hurt in his voice when she didn't answer a single one of his questions.

Annabeth had never had the problem of such an unwanted crush before. She was popular and pretty enough that she could get most of the guys she set her mind on, and she knew Percy was the same way.

He was _Percy_ though—Percy Jackson with his stupid, messy black hair, and those eyes—she still hadn't managed to get a close enough look to decide what colour they were. She wanted to more than anything. She wanted to run her hands through that hair and over those muscles and stare into those eyes until she had a million words to describe them.

(Then kiss him senseless.)

It was impossible, though. Percy wasn't her enemy anymore, not really, but he would still never be interested in her. They were just too different. Or maybe the problem was that they were too much the same. So she kept her silence as long as she could; sometimes she felt like she _had_ to be silent when he was there, because she never breathed when he was beside her. Or at least that's what it felt like.

Percy Jackson was smart, though. Maybe not book smart, like she was, with her countless perfect tests and top marks, but he was better at reading people. It didn't take him long to see something was seriously off, and it didn't take him much longer to confront her about it.

He caught up with her before lunch one day, just as she was coming out of her English class. She wondered idly how he knew where she would be.

"Annabeth! Hey, _Annabeth!"_

Annabeth kept walking, ignoring him and trying not to think about how he was actually saying her name correctly for once. She tipped her chin up just a bit higher.

"Annabeth, wait up!"

She sighed, breaking, and whirled around to face Percy. " _What?_ What do you _want,_ Percy?"

He couldn't mask the hurt that dashed across his features quickly enough. "Nothing, I just—I wanted to talk to you." He looked down at his feet, avoiding her eyes. "Ask you what I did wrong."

She tapped her foot impatiently and tried not to imagine what that jawline would feel like under her lips. "What makes you think you did anything wrong?"

"Uh." Percy scratched the back of his neck. "Maybe the fact that you've been avoiding me for a week? I'm not an idiot, Annabeth."

A couple of freshmen Annabeth recognized from musical had slowed to watch the exchange. Annabeth gave them her best death glare and they hurried off, glancing back over their shoulders at them. Annabeth floundered for a suitable response.

"Have you considered—maybe I just—don't want to talk to you?"

"Are you saying I'm bad at holding a conversation?"

"Um." Annabeth hated that he could look down on her. She missed being taller than him. When had that ended? "No?"

"Then what are you saying?"

Annabeth stayed silent, staring at her toes. Percy sighed loudly in exasperation.

"I don't know why I bother even trying. I thought we were over this stupid childhood feud, but clearly there are issues you still have."

Annabeth latched onto the idea. Even though it made her stomach twist into knots that felt like torture, it was better than the real truth. "Yeah, well, you've done some stuff that really sucks over the years, okay? I don't know how easily I can just give it all up."

He flung his arms in the air, obviously frustrated. "Well what do you want me to do about that? I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for—just all of it. I've said all this before, but I can say it again."

Annabeth felt the twist in her stomach clench further, and she wrapped her arms around it. She could hear the tremble in her voice, and she hated it. "Sometimes sorry doesn't cut it, Percy."

She tried to watch his eyes as he stared down at the floor between them, clearly conflicted. Finally, he closed his eyes, sighing through his nose, and started to turn away. "Okay. Fine. You know what, _Annabeth?_ I'm done. I'll leave you alone. I'm done trying. I'm just—I'll go, okay? I'll let you be."

He said her name correctly again, and she could hear the ice. She almost wished he had called her something ridiculous instead. It would have felt better than this.

She watched as he retreated down the hall, slumped in defeat, and wished she could chase after him and wrap her arms around his neck. Instead, she watched as he rounded the corner and then slipped down the stairs to her locker, where she slid down the wall and buried her head in her lap. Luckily, Piper and Thalia recognized something was wrong the instant they joined her, and started a conversation Annabeth could just listen to from the comfort of her arms. Piper's hand found hers and she squeezed Annabeth's palm gently, a silent prayer of comfort and understanding. Annabeth really didn't deserve such nice friends.

They had rehearsal that evening, and Percy didn't look her in the eye once. Onstage, he acted to her ear the whole time, and she didn't try to catch his gaze. She acted to his lips. The ones she was forced to kiss onstage, and wouldn't object to kissing offstage.

She caught him staring at her twice, once from the audience and the other time right onstage, his arms and legs crossed and his glare cold. They both looked away quickly.

She waited for him when the rehearsal ended, feeling the icy wind cut through the holes on her coat as she stood on the front steps of the school. After twenty minutes of shivering on the steps, Annabeth started home, defeated. She had forgotten how far away she lived; the walk felt much longer without her annoying companion. Percy Jackson was probably the most annoying person on the planet, she decided. He drove her utterly insane, with all his smirks and mispronounced names, and his stupid, perfect lips were back in her mind again.

Annabeth hated having a crush with everything in her being. She felt like she finally understood why people called it a _crush_.

There was almost a week of radio silence between Annabeth and Percy before anything changed. He didn't walk her home after rehearsal any of the days they had it, and Annabeth realized she liked his blabbering more than her own thoughts. She wasn't sure how he was walking home, but there were surely other streets to walk down. She didn't try to find him, she wasn't that pathetic.

They didn't meet on the stairs between class. On the rare occasion they passed each other in the halls, Annabeth got nothing more than a curt nod and a smile from his mouth. She would almost have preferred if he just ignored her. Instead, he was treating her like a stranger.

Mr. D wouldn't stop yelling at Percy during rehearsal. They had started the second act, and Annabeth had had every line in the script memorized halfway through December, but Percy still called _line_ every other sentence he said. On Thursday he carried his script onstage with him all rehearsal, and barely looked up from his lines all afternoon. He knocked over four boxes and a freshman, and Annabeth couldn't remember ever seeing him so distracted. He looked up and caught her gaze once, and gave her a sheepish half-smile before returning to his script. Annabeth felt a flutter somewhere in the pit of her stomach. It was the first time he'd really looked at her in a week.

She got the text halfway through a particularly boring history lesson the next day, and couldn't resist the temptation. She pulled her phone out under the table to check, and grinned unconsciously.

 ** _2:37pm_** **Dork:** Hey Alibeth I know were figting right now but pls help me memorize my lines Im very lost.

 ** _2:37pm_** **Dork:** *fighting

Annabeth smirked, fingers already dashing across the keyboard. She had forgotten the name she'd put for him as a contact, and the way he typed about as many mistakes as he did words.

 ** _2:38pm_** **Annabeth:** You sure that's the only word that you spelled wrong?

 ** _2:42pm_** **Dork:** Shut up i know i suck at typig

 ** _2:42pm_** **Dork:** *typing

 ** _2:42pm_** **Dork:** Please help me anabeth i know you are mad but i need you're brains

 ** _2:43pm_** **Annabeth:** I'll help you if you spell 'you're' correctly

 ** _2:43pm_** **Dork:** your?

 ** _2:44pm_** **Annabeth:** Bingo!

 ** _2:47pm_** **Dork:** Awesome come over and help study lines? Today after school?

 ** _2:48pm_** **Annabeth:** Okay

 ** _2:48pm_** **Dork:** [thumbs-up] [thumbs-up]

Annabeth realized suddenly she had been staring at her lap for s good chunk of the lesson now. She glanced up hastily, but her the history teacher was still droning on. The notes were still on the same slide up on the board. Grinning, Annabeth picked up her pencil and started scribbling stuff down.

Last period couldn't spin by fast enough.

* * *

Percy's apartment was surprisingly normal.

Percy kicked off his shoes when they walked in, so Annabeth did the same, sitting down on a small bench by the door to untie her laces. The door opened into a wide living room, with several tattered couches surrounding an antique-looking carpet. There were plates piled on a table in the middle and dust on the fire place, and Percy rushed in and began hurriedly gathering the few t-shirts draped over the back of one of the couches. He grinned sheepishly at her when he returned, leaning down to stack the plates on the coffee table.

"Sorry it's so messy," he said, like he really meant it.

Annabeth shook her head as she shrugged off her coat. The floor was spotless and she'd never seen a cozier room. "No, I love it."

Percy grinned, pleased. Annabeth wandered further into the room as he carried the dirty dishes into the kitchen. There were Christmas lights hung off the picture frames around the room, and the warm glow of the tall lamps that bordered one of the couches was soft and comforting. There was a scraggly tree in the corner, hung messily with Christmas baubles and popcorn garlands, candy canes and small, fake candles. Christmas cards hung on a string across the doorway, and Annabeth spun around in wonder.

Percy wandered back from the kitchen a moment later and noticed her staring. "Oh, yeah, sorry about all of this." He walked over to join her and dusted a few crumbs off the top of the fireplace. "My mom goes crazy around Christmastime, it's really a little bit—"

"It's _wonderful_ ," she interrupted, stepping forwards to rub a piece of stale popcorn between her fingers. "My family never decorates like this. We're lucky if we have a tree, most years."

Usually, Annabeth was the only one who actually decorated the tree, while her little brothers ran around and tried to throw baubles at each other until she tossed them out of the room. Her step-mother, Helen, seemed to have no concern for holidays or tradition, and her dad usually forgot about Christmas until the day before. There was a reason she got half-wrapped book that had been in the study for years each birthday.

Percy's apartment felt welcoming. Warm, comfortable, a real _home._ It was weird, Annabeth thought. She had never seen Percy's apartment before, not in six years of rivalry. Of course, why should she have, but it still felt weird that she had never once seen the place where her arch-rival woke up every morning. It was much more normal than she would have imagined.

"What do you want to do?" Percy asked, flopping down on the couch. "I mean, I know you're here to go over lines but we have forever to do that. You want to stay for dinner? It's Friday so we're having pizza. My mom makes the _best_ pizza."

Annabeth blinked, taken aback. "I—okay."

"Great!" He beamed. "What do you wanna do first? We could have a snack?"

"I like snacks."

"Awesome, I think we have some cookies in the kitchen." Percy leapt up from the couch and dashed across the room and through the kitchen door. Annabeth stood awkwardly in the middle of the room until he returned with an entire jar of cookies and a couple glasses of milk. He handed one to her as he placed the cookie jar carefully on the table with the other hand.

"Oh, yeah, sit down," said Percy, looking up at her face. "Just sit down wherever."

The couches in the living room of Annabeth's apartment were pretty much always off limits. They had pristine cushions without a single dent in the stuffing. Annabeth avoided them at all costs. She took a careful perch on the edge of the couch across from Percy, flinching when he tossed her a cookie. It landed it her lap, dropping crumbs across her pants. It was bright blue, and she picked it up to look at it.

"Why—"

"Don't ask," Percy said, already chewing on his second cookie. "Family tradition. My mom always makes them like this."

Annabeth nodded and gingerly look a bite. She had to close her eyes for a second, and purse her lips to keep from moaning. It was by far the best thing she had ever tasted. She grabbed the cup of milk and eagerly dipped the rest of the cookie in. Across from her, Percy laughed.

"Right? My mom makes the best cookies ever. I can make half-decent ones too, but never as good as hers."

Annabeth found herself smiling. She liked the way almost all of Percy's sentences contained the phrase _my mom._

"So, what should we do?" Annabeth asked a moment later, polishing off her third cookie. "Should we start going over lines now?"

"No way, it's too early for that." Percy licked some leftover chocolate off his fingers and downed the rest of his milk, wiping his mouth off with the back of his hand. "How about we… oh, I have a great idea. Let's have a karaoke battle!"

"A what?"

"A karaoke battle," Percy said, pulling a battered laptop off the coffee table. "What, you never like to sing karaoke when no one is around?"

Annabeth couldn't say that she did. The neighbours would hear if she did, never mind the fact that everyone in the house would judge her immensely if he just started singing. She usually hid in the closet to do her voice practice.

"I don't have a karaoke machine," she chose to say instead.

Percy rolled his eyes across the table. "Of course you don't. Who actually has a karaoke machine? You can get tons of karaoke clips just on YouTube. Come on." He stood up, offering a hand to pull her up off the couch. Then he clambered over the coffee table and turned his laptop around to face them. Annabeth stared up at him doubtfully, and he sighed. "It's fun, I promise. You just have to, well, _sing_."

And he hit play.

The first song, Annabeth was too flustered to sing anything properly. She forgot the words and her voice cracked on the high note, and Percy laughed at her. They cycled through several pop songs and then transitioned to _Hamilton_ , running around the room and belting the lyrics at the top of their voices. Eventually, Annabeth forgot the neighbours could probably hear them, and started re-enacting the songs just as dramatically as Percy. They jumped on the couches, and Annabeth fake-cried in the middle of one of the songs until Percy was rolling on the floor with laughter. They were running around and screaming and _singing._

 _"I am not throwing away my shot!"_ Percy screamed, jumping off the couch and crashing into the coffee table. He hit his foot on the table as he fell, and Annabeth collapsed into laughter when he rolled over groaning in pain.

Their voices sounded great together, Annabeth realized, especially when they weren't screaming. Maybe it didn't matter who heard, who knew they were insane theatre kids. Maybe it didn't matter this wasn't how most people spent their Friday nights. It was the most fun Annabeth had had in _months_.

They were singing Disney songs by the time the door creaked open, sitting cross-legged on the couch like it was a boat and reaching up to catch imaginary lanterns from the sky. They looked up to see a dark-haired woman who could only be Percy's mother smiling over at them as she hung up her coat, and Percy bounced up to pause the music and pad over to give her a kiss on the cheek. She was wearing an apron that hung off one shoulder and her brown hair was tied in a messy ponytail falling out its elastic. Her eyes were tired, but she beamed at Percy like he was made of sunshine. Annabeth sank back onto the couch, embarrassed.

"Hello, Percy dear," said his mother, wrapping him in a hug and smiling up at him. Percy had the same smile, Annabeth realized. "Don't stop singing just because I'm home, I love hearing you sing." She broke away from her son and came towards Annabeth, still smiling gently. "You must be Annabeth? I've heard so much about you, Percy hasn't stopped talking about you in years. I'm Sally."

" _Mom_ ," Percy spluttered, going scarlet.

"Um," said Annabeth, blushing and holding out her hand for Sally to shake it eagerly. "Yeah, I'm Annabeth. Nice to meet you."

"Oh, she's so polite," Sally stage whispered to Percy, who buried his face in his hands. Annabeth couldn't help but smile. "You are staying for dinner, dear?"

Annabeth nodded. "If that's okay?"

"Of course, always glad to have company."

"Is Paul coming over tonight?" Percy asked, perching on the arm of the couch.

Sally snuck a cookie from the jar before starting towards her room. "I think so, he should be here in a bit. Keep your guest entertained. Don't stop singing on my account, kids." She disappeared into the bedroom at the end of the hall.

Annabeth looked up at Percy questioningly. "Who's Paul?"

"Paul is… well not my step-dad yet." Percy was grinning almost unconsciously, like he genuinely liked the guy. Like he had been waiting all his life for his mom to find someone worthy and she finally had. "They're engaged. Going to be married in the summer, I think."

"Oh, cool," said Annabeth. She ached to ask what had happened to his actual dad, but decided it wasn't the time, choosing instead to shut his laptop and cross the room to her backpack. "You want to practice lines for a bit now?" she asked, pulling out her script.

Percy sighed. "Fine. Let's practice our stupid lines."

They settled back down on the couch with their scripts and started going over different lines and scenes. After a few minutes, Sally emerged from her bedroom wearing a soft blue dress and disappeared into the kitchen. The smell of hot tomato sauce and melting cheese filled the apartment, and Annabeth couldn't help but lose concentration a bit as the sweet smells of homemade pizza wafted through the room.

The phone rang, and Sally buzzed up a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair who Annabeth could only assume was Paul. The sun set through the window in the dining room, and it was dark outside by the time Sally called them all to the table to eat. There were some scarce snowflakes drifting down outside the window, and Annabeth couldn't help but wish she could come here all the time. It was rare that everyone in her house gathered for a meal, and she usually ended up cold leftovers from a pot in the fridge. She got the impression hot family meals were pretty much a daily occurrence in Percy's house. They was a pang in her chest, like nostalgia for something she had never had.

The pizza was heavenly, of course. No one spoke for several minutes, too immersed with eating as many slices of the soft pizza as was possible. Once everyone had started to slow down, the conversation picked up. Annabeth contented herself by eating quietly and listening to Sally, Paul and Percy chat cheerfully about their days. She learned about Percy's mother, who had apparently gone back to college to go to art school and worked in a candy shop on the side. Paul, who seemed really nice and made Annabeth snort into her water, was a teacher at one of their rival high schools. Percy seemed perfectly happy to chat with both of them, and Annabeth wasn't sure if she had ever been in the presence of a better family dynamic. Once again, she found herself wishing this wouldn't be the only time she got to go over to Percy's house. It seemed like it would be a lovely thing to do once a week. Several times a week.

Sally asked her about her family like she was genuinely interested, and Annabeth and Percy ended up telling her a long and animated story about something one of their cast members had done at rehearsal. Sally seemed to know a lot about her already, like Percy really did talk about her often. She was glad the two of them were over their latest fight, because apparently Percy always seemed a little down when they were fighting. Annabeth looked over at Percy with ill-concealed amusement at that, and his cheeks flamed again.

Everyone helped clear the table when they finished eating, and Percy offered to do the dishes, so Annabeth sat on the counter and dried plates as she chatted to Percy. She wasn't sure how she had never realized how well Percy could hold a conversation, in all their years of fighting. He made a mustache out of soap studs and flicked water at her head when she laughed at him. She retaliated by flicking him with her dishtowel and yelling, "Dance, peasant!"

Afterwards, she dragged her backpack to his bedroom and sat on his bed to read lines some more, ignoring Sally, who called after them to _be responsible_. They abandoned the scripts after a while and sat cross-legged across from each other, reciting their lines from memory with their eyes closed. Annabeth was immersed in the scene, buried in the world of Sandy and Danny and their ridiculous greaser friends. She could hear the smirk in Percy's voice, almost see the sparkle in his eyes. She wasn't sure why her heart was beating so fast, why Percy's voice kept sending shivers down her spine.

It was probably the ambience of Percy's room, with its dark blue walls and unmade bed, the soft scent Annabeth couldn't describe as anything other than _Percy_. His walls were covered in picture frames and messily made wall art, and he had a bulletin board above his desk with several Playbills from different shows hung up with thumbtacks and some pictures of a gap-toothed Percy grinning hugely beside heavily made-up members of different Broadway shows. One photo caught Annabeth's eyes, and she got up to examine it more closely.

It was a picture of a tiny Percy, no more than five or six, smiling widely up at the camera, with the scarecrow from _The Wizard of Oz_ standing beside him. That wasn't what caught Annabeth's eye, though. She couldn't help but stare at the man on Percy's other side, holding Percy's tiny hand in my huge one. He was tall and muscular with fantastically wind-swept hair and a devastating smile. Annabeth caught her breath. Even though his face was tiny and blurry, his identity was immediately obvious.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked, shifting his weight and opening his eyes to stare over at her. "What are you doing?"

"Is this—is this your dad?" Annabeth ignored the question and pointed to the photo. Behind her, Percy's face darkened.

"Yeah," he said, staring down at his lap. "Yeah, that's him."

Annabeth surprised even herself by sitting down across from him again and taking both his hands in hers. "I—I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it, I just. I was curious."

Percy shook his head, avoiding her eyes. "No, it's okay, it was a long time ago. And besides, you were bound to find out at some point."

"What happened?" she prodded gently.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know, exactly. I was only six. He and my mom, they really loved each other. Like, more than anyone I've ever seen. He just disappeared one day, though. I came home and he wasn't there, and I never saw him again. I don't know what happened. I never found out."

Annabeth looked over at the picture, at tiny Percy and his ridiculous smile. She couldn't imagining anyone abandoning this tiny boy. The look on his dad's face was so obviously loving Annabeth wondered what could possibly have driven him away. He looked so enamoured with his little boy.

"I'm sorry," said Annabeth. "That really sucks. I—I kind of get it. My mom abandoned us to move to California when I was like, four. I don't think my dad was ever really the same. I mean, he remarried, but… he stays in his study all day, never pays much attention to the world. I blame it all on her. If she wasn't my mother, I would say I wished she didn't exist."

The edges of Percy's lips tipped up, and he squeezed her hand slightly. "Yeah, you get it. Grown-ups suck. My mom remarried when I was ten, to this guy called Gabe. I think it was mostly because we needed the money, though. For everything. We had nothing. He pretty much sucked though. He—well, I won't tell you all the things he did because that would take up all evening." He grimaced, and Annabeth tried to smile encouragingly. He continued, still not meeting her eyes. "I think that was why I was so mean to you, actually. I need somewhere to vent all of it and you—you were just _there_ and you went off so easily, and by the time my mom kicked him out we were in so deep, and our feud was actually just kind of fun, and—"

Annabeth stopped him, reaching over to lift his chin with her hand so he was looking her in the eyes. He wasn't wearing his signature smile, and his eyes were wide and apologetic. Green. His eyes were green, as green as a lake in the sun, and Annabeth caught her breath. She was so close, she could kiss him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Annabeth smiled slightly, unable to look away from his eyes. She had never quite been able to see what colour they were before. "It's okay," she told him quietly. "It was never your fault. We just liked—we just _like_ fighting. It's whatever, you know."

"Whatever," he agreed, his usual smile making an appearance. The long, dark eyelashes fluttering over his eyes looked damp. Annabeth was still a little mesmerized by those eyes.

She stood up from the bed, giving him time to discreetly wipe his face on the pillowcase. She wandered around the room, looking at his photos. There was Percy, with his arms around a girl with purple braces and crazy red curls. Percy with a group of boys Annabeth recognized from school. She pointed at that one with a grin, turning back to Percy.

"Hey, does your friend Jason want to go out with Piper?"

Percy stared at her like she was insane. "Yeah, obviously, he's been in love with her since the first day of rehearsal."

Annabeth laughed. "Cool, tell him to go for it, she won't stop complaining about how he hasn't asked her out."

"On it." Percy reached for his phone.

There were so many pictures. Percy at the fair, holding his arms up at the top of a roller coaster. Percy with his arms around his mom, his lips frozen on her cheek. Percy opening Christmas presents with great vigour, a roaring fire in the fireplace behind him. Beside the door, there was one empty frame. Annabeth glance over at Percy.

"What's this one for?" she asked.

Percy smiled at her, and she couldn't quite understand his expression. "Saving it for someone special."

Annabeth let her fingers dust over the frame, staring the empty glass. There was a small sticky note stuck to the glass with a drawing of two small stick figures holding hands. One had spirals coming out of its head, and Annabeth touched the tiny drawing gingerly, laughing. She turned to Percy.

"This is very artsy," she teased.

He laughed. "Thanks, I spent a lot of time on it."

She turned back to the drawing, tracing her fingertip over the tiny smiles of the little people. "Well, hopefully one day we'll find you the perfect picture to put in here."

"Yeah, hopefully." There was something odd in his voice, so soft and full of possibility.

Annabeth let her hand drop to her side, glancing over at the clock beside Percy's bed. It was late, almost eleven, and Annabeth wasn't sure where the evening had gone. She kind of wished she could stay in Percy' bedroom forever, talking in soft voices. With a sigh, she lugged her backpack up from his bedroom floor and leaned over his bed to grab her script.

"It's late, I should get going," she said, and he immediately leapt up from where he had been lying on his bed staring at the ceiling.

"I'll walk you." He was already snatching his jacket up from where it was hung over the back of a chair and valuating over his bed to pull open the door for her.

She looked back at him as she walked through the door. "You really don't have to."

"Please, it's not far. Besides, I wanna see you home safe. I wouldn't have a co-star if you died on the way home."

"That's true, the musical would be pretty pathetic without me."

"It would indeed."

He pulled his coat on as they walked out the door, and Annabeth couldn't help noticing the way it fit around his shoulders, remembering the way they looked without any flimsy fabric covering them. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the memories.

The streets were muffled with snow, and Percy walked beside her with his hands in his pockets, unspeaking and looking at his toes. They hadn't walked together like this in several weeks now, and Annabeth had nearly forgotten how calming his presence was. She lifted her face to the sky, breathing in the cool night air. Beside her, Percy cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Hey, look, I'm—sorry about tonight."

Annabeth looked over at him, surprised. "What for?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Wasting your entire evening reading lines? Making you help with the dishes? My messy apartment? Telling you my entire sob life story?"

Annabeth almost reached for his hand before she remembered she wasn't Sandy and he wasn't Danny and she couldn't just _do_ that. Their fingers brushed, cotton gloves against bare fingers, sending a shock like electricity down Annabeth's spine.

"Percy, I literally cannot remember the last time I had such a fun evening. It was just—everything was _great_ , okay? Don't apologize."

"Okay," he said, nodding at his toes. Then he looked up and caught Annabeth's gaze. They both grinned, flustered, and looked away.

"Alright, um. This is my building." Annabeth came to a halt outside the old apartment building, shifting the weight of her backpack on her shoulders. Snow was staring to fall again, tiny flakes spinning down, and they gathered on Percy's hair and shoulders. Annabeth brushed some off the shoulder of his coat, and he looked down at her hand.

"Thanks for—rehearsing lines with me and stuff. It really helped," he said, smiling a little awkwardly at her. They were standing about a foot apart, just staring at each other in snow-muffled silence.

Annabeth smiled gently. "You're a fantastic actor, Percy. You just need to concentrate. You'll get the lines memorized, I know it."

"Thanks. You're—you're really great, too."

They smiled stupidly at each other for a moment, then on impulse Annabeth lurched forwards onto her tiptoes to kiss Percy on the cheek. When she pulled away he brought a hand to his cheek, stunned.

Blushing profusely, Annabeth started to back up towards her building. "Um, bye Percy. See you Monday!"

She darted up the steps and swiped her key, glancing back only once before the glass doors closed. Percy was standing where she had left him, still staring after her in awe. His fingertips grazed his jaw on the spot where her lips touched. Annabeth bit back a smile.

The door slammed shut behind her.

* * *

Tech week was a synonym for chaos.

In fact, Annabeth was about 98% sure if she looked up the definition of 'chaos' in the dictionary all she would find would be the words 'tech week'. Possibly repeated twice, because that was just how tech week felt.

Annabeth brushed a sweaty strand of hair out of her eyes as Mr. D's yelling broke through the scene. Beside her, Percy sighed and ran a hand through his own hair, muttering something incoherent under his breath. Annabeth sat down on a nearby box as Mr. D yelled at a couple of sophomores in the background who had been laughing and chatting instead of dancing. Percy, who had pulled out his phone and was scrolling almost feverishly, groaned loudly. Annabeth scooted over, trying to peer over his shoulder.

"Everything alright?"

He glanced up, surprised, and there was a thin gleam of sweat on his forehead. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm just…" he shook his head, looking exhausted, "trying to remember all these lines. I can never remember what comes after…" He scrolled some more and grunted something Annabeth didn't catch.

Annabeth glanced quickly over her shoulder to make sure Mr. D wasn't watching them, and scooted a little closer. "I could help you rehearse again during lunch, if you want. It could help a bit."

Percy looked almost relieved enough to cry, and Annabeth had to stifle a giggle at his expression. "You're serious?"

"Of course, you dork."

They were all squashed into the theatre—the last morning before they moved into the gym for the dress rehearsals—and it seemed to have gotten smaller with every song they ran. The air was humid and sticky, and Annabeth felt like all she had been breathing for the past hour was body sweat. She glanced over to see Piper lying on the floor, fanning herself with her dog-eared script. It was only a few hours into the morning of the first rehearsal, and Annabeth already felt like dying. _Great_. She sighed, and told herself it would all be worth it in a few days.

Mr. D clapped his hands, and everyone snapped up to order. Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth saw Percy slip his phone back into his pocket.

"Alright, brats, enough time-wasting, you know I have very little tolerance for human interaction that is not crucial to putting on a good show. Now, if you would please take it from the top of the number."

Two more hours of sweating and stumbling over dance moves that were never quite perfected later, it was lunch break. Percy was waiting for Annabeth outside of the theatre when she finally emerged, thankfully done helping stack boxes and set pieces to bring to the gym after lunch. He was holding a paper cup in each hand and humming thoughtfully, and he grinned widely when he saw Annabeth. "Hey! I thought we could go to the park for lunch, how does that sound?"

He gestured with one of his cups and Annabeth stared at it. "What's in the cups?"

He glanced down, seemingly surprised he was still holding the cups. "Oh, right. I got you coffee from the cafeteria."

"Ugh, the cafeteria coffee sucks," Annabeth said, plucking the cup out of his hand and taking a gulp. It was black with sugar, and unpleasantly lukewarm. Annabeth usually drank her coffee with cream and no sugar, but after a few sips she decided it wasn't half bad this way.

Then again, maybe it was just Percy's hopeful smile that made her take another sip and grimace his way.

"So, park?" he asked again, and she nodded, her mouth full of mediocre coffee.

The park in question was about a block away from the school, and full of large, shady trees and rusty benches. The sky was bright and blue, when they stepped outside and sunlight sparkled off the layer of white snow that still coated the ground. Annabeth breathed the cold air in deeply, pulling her hat further down over her ears as they walked. They reached the park after a few minutes of quiet walking, and settled on a particularly old-looking bench with snow on the armrests. Annabeth busied herself by pulling out her script as Percy pulled out several Tupperware containers of lunch food and set them on the bench. When Annabeth stared at him, he just shrugged.

"My mom likes to make me lots of lunch. Strawberry?"

She took one.

Percy remembered his lines well when they were here, sitting side by side in the middle of a snowy wonderland. He was Danny Zuko in down instead of leather, with a beanie instead of slicked back hair. It was hard, sitting like this, so close together, to remember this was acting and they weren't really in love.

After they had gone through a few of the scenes that normally gave them troubled without a hitch, Percy looked up at her with a big, mischievous smile. Annabeth squinted suspiciously at him. "What?"

"I thought of another scene we should practice."

She flipped busily through her script, trying to find a scene they hadn't covered. "Sure, which?"

He reached over and closed the script in her lap, his eyes sparkling. "I was thinking maybe we should practice The Scene. You know… the one Ms. Aphrodite made us practice so many times at the start of rehearsal?"

Annabeth realized she was holding her breath and released it. Percy was so close, her breath rustled his hair. Or maybe it was just the breeze. "You mean… the one where they—where they kiss?"

"Yeah," he whispered. It wouldn't make sense to speak above a whisper when you were this close. He had a pimple between his eyebrows. "We want it to be genuine, right? We could use some practice."

 _Tempting_.

No, it was too tempting. It was a scheme or a hoax, some way to hurt her later. After all, that was what Percy did, right? She pushed away from him, shaking her head. "I don't know what you're playing at, but I refuse to be the butt of another prank. So thanks, but no thanks."

She leapt brusquely to her feet, shoving her script into her backpack and setting off hurriedly. Percy called out from behind her as she set off, his voice too loud and concerned.

"Wait, Annabeth, I'm sorry I wasn't trying to—"

"Save it," she called over her shoulder, whirling around to face him. He had gotten to his feet, and his eyebrows were furrowed. "I don't want to know what you were _trying_ to do. I just. I don't want any part of it, thanks."

She didn't look back until she was back at the school, until she was shoving her coat into her locker, until she was in the bathroom with her back against the door and her hands in her hair, breathing heavily and trying to sift through all this information. She'd been right to leave, of course. She'd known Percy for years, and she still knew him as the boy who saw her kiss Anthony Stone under the stairs and told the whole school they were having sex. If he did that, then he was capable of… this. Whatever he'd been trying to do in the park.

But then again, the Percy she'd gotten to know in the last few months seemed different. Sometimes his jokes were actually funny. He made her laugh. He sang with her and danced with her and sometimes she ate dinner at his house and chatted to his mom. Maybe it meant something else. Maybe he just genuinely wanted to kiss her.

 _Yeah, right._

Annabeth was jerked out of her thoughts as one of the stall doors opened and Hazel stepped out, giving Annabeth a curious look as she went to wash her hands. She shook off her hands and padded over to the drier, still watching Annabeth.

"Hi Annabeth! Everything alright?"

Annabeth sighed, straightened. "Yeah, hi Hazel. I just… I'm fine, yeah."

Hazel tilted her head. She reminded Annabeth a bit of a cat, with those big luminous eyes and softly curious expression. "You're a bit pink."

Annabeth put her hands to her cheeks, feeling the warmth. "Oh, crap, um. No, that's nothing, I was just. Outside. It's cold outside."

"Oh, of course. Well, you might as well come down to the theatre again now, we can start on your makeup early. I'll see you in a minute."

She definitely saw right through Annabeth.

Annabeth sighed again. She went to the bathroom. She stared at herself in the mirror. She splashed off her face with cold water from the sink. Finally, she left the bathroom again and headed to the theatre where she remembered to sit especially still as Hazel dusted makeup over her face.

* * *

The stage looked amazing.

The musical was in the school gym this year. Annabeth kind of wished they did their performances in an actual theatre, like she knew they'd done in past years, but all put together the gym was almost perfect. There were actual stage lights rigged so they were hanging from the ceiling, and the stage, usually filled with ill-used athletic equipment, was crowded with beautifully painted set pieces. Someone had brought in an actual car as a prop, and though it was old and a bit battered, it gleamed a shiny red under the stage lights.

Annabeth would have grinned at it if she wasn't already grinning as Sandy. Percy—no, _Danny's_ hand was clasped around hers as they ran out onto the stage for the first time. The rest of the cast sat on the gym floor, and they cheered when Percy and Annabeth darted out from the wings, stumbling and laughing. Percy twirled her, and under the stage lights he was beautiful. Under the lights, his skin glowed and his eyes shone, and his smile was pure and sweet. And in the heat of the lights, in the magic of the music flowing up from the school's orchestra in the wings, she forgot. She forgot everything: that they didn't live in this world of swirling skirts and music, that she couldn't hold him like this in real life, that the love in eyes wasn't _real_. In real life, he didn't look at her like this, like she was the center of the universe and all the planets and the other actors and the music revolved around _her_.

In real life, she didn't get so nervous when he leaned towards her. Her mouth didn't go dry, and she didn't watch his lips like this. Because Percy was all solid and muscles, but his lips were so soft. And when she kissed him, when Sandy kissed him, she never wanted to let go.

She got lost. In all of it.

The rehearsal didn't go without mishaps. Lacy, a freshman in charge of set changes, didn't get off stage in time for one of the scenes, and in a panic lay down behind a painted bush and stayed there for the rest of the scene. Piper nearly fell off the stage in one of the dance numbers, but Reyna, the girl who played Rizzo, caught her arm before she fell and rolled her eyes magnificently like it had all been planned.

But despite it all, it was beautiful. Percy was perfect. He remembered nearly all his lines, and even when she wasn't centre-stage she still watched him. She watched the animated way he moved and how under the layers of Danny Zuko, the quirk of his smile was still Percy. She could still see Percy in his eyes.

His singing was enchanting too—like a siren, luring her in until she drowned in those sea-green eyes.

 _Hopelessly Devoted to You_ wasn't all acting, Annabeth realized as she sang it out to the cast members on the floor.

And when the curtain closed, she almost regretted it. Now, she was Annabeth again. She wasn't Sandy, and she wasn't madly in love with Danny— _Percy_.

The most shocking moment of the entire afternoon though, was when they finally finished the dress rehearsal, and Annabeth had sat down on a set piece to wipe sweat off her forehead. Percy sat down beside her, grinning widely. He was still wearing his leather jacket, but his perfectly styled hair had started to wilt.

"Hey," he said. "Um, incredible job. You were just. Just wow."

She smiled. Shifted. "Thanks. You were… you were too. Incredible. I mean, you were good."

They grinned at each other for a moment of silence, and then Percy opened his arms and somehow she was hugging him, not hard enough to show she liked him and not light enough to show she wanted to get away. The perfect amount to be gloriously, stiflingly awkward.

He smelled of sweat. And fittingly, leather.

Someone was slow clapping. They broke apart, and Annabeth brushed back her hair. Suddenly too aware of everyone in the gym, chatting and wandering around. Mr. D was walking towards them, clapping slowly and loudly, and drawing the attention of everyone in a twenty-foot radius. When he started talking, his voice was obnoxiously loud.

"Well, I have to say, for terrible actors such as yourself you pulled that together quite well." (This was the Mr. D equivalent of singing their praises in a long operatic sonnet.) "Annabeth, very… _convincing_. I believed it. You act just liked you're hopelessly in love with Percy." He grimaced, like the next words tasted sour. "Well done."

As he walked away, Annabeth sat still frozen on her box, staring after him horrified. Percy was grinning.

"Wow, Annabeth—"

"Don't."

"Such a great job, so hopelessly in love with me."

"Percy, please—"

"What is it? My perfect muscles? Or wait, my gorgeous hair?"

"I do _not—"_

"Aw, come on, you know I'm irresistible and you're ridiculously, desperately, _hopelessly_ in love with—"

It was the last straw. Annabeth leapt to her feet. "Shut up. _Shut up!_ I am _not!_ I am not in love with you!"

Percy blinked, surprised. "Wow, okay, um sorry I didn't realize it was such a big—"

But Annabeth wasn't done. "I'm not in love with you! I'm not even the littlest, tiniest bit in love with you because I can't _stand_ you. And I don't see how anyone could possibly fall in love with _you_ , with you of all people. _Ever._ "

It was too much. Annabeth blinked, and opened her mouth. What had she just _said?_ "Percy, wait, I'm so—"

But Percy was already on his feet, glaring at her with fury set in the line of his lips. With pain in his eyes. Too many goddamn emotions. Annabeth wanted to scream.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that, Annabeth Chase. I've been nothing but nice to you in the last year and you keep hurting me just to run away from feelings you don't like. So if I were you I would learn to shut the fuck up sometimes."

Everyone was watching them. Annabeth _would_ not cry. She just wouldn't.

Her lips were trembling when she spoke. "You think these… these games you play are funny. But they're not. They never have been. And I refuse to be the butt of them anymore. I am _done_ being your toy! I'm done being your friend, because god knows I've tried and you've just made it fucking impossible."

She stormed out before he could get in the last word.

* * *

Piper found her with her head in her knees, sitting against a locker in the basement. Annabeth wasn't crying, not exactly, just sitting with her head buried and pretending the world didn't exist.

Annabeth had decided maybe if she sat here long enough, everything would stop existing. Slicked back hair and sea green eyes and dazzling smiles. Leather and poodle skirts. Musicals. Everything that made her world spin round.

Piper slid down the locked beside her silently, folding her arms over her knees. When Annabeth snuck a peek at her, she was staring at the lockers across from them unspeaking. They sat in silence for a while, nothing but the noise of a distant fan and the soft comfort of having a friend beside you.

But when Piper spoke Annabeth still wasn't ready for it.

"Annabeth, I—"

"Piper, please don't."

Piper stroked her hair. "Oh honey, you know I have to."

Annabeth laughed, a single dry laugh that sounded like a sob.

"Annabeth, babe, you know I'm not going to tell you I blame you for any of this. I know you're hurting and all, but Percy was a little right. You can't keep exploding on him because you don't like the way you're feeling."

Annabeth hated it when her voice broke. It made her feel like she was standing on stage at her first voice recital, her voice cracking like mad and the boys at the back laughing at her. She closed her eyes and tried to control her voice, but it came out wrong, all wrong.

"I know, I _know._ I—I didn't mean to—"

"Shh, babe, I know. It's hard. But Annabeth, you're refusing to see that you're basically in love with the boy. You're blocking it all off, and you're blocking _him_ off too, and if you weren't so stupid you'd see he likes you too."

That didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. Percy didn't like her. Not after today, at least. "I'm not stupid."

"You are, a little bit."

"Whatever. Even if—even if Percy did like me, he doesn't now. He can't now, not after—after everything I said."

"He might still. If you apologized."

Finally, Annabeth jerked her head up and looked at Piper, aware her cheeks were hot and her eyes were burning. Maybe she was crying, after all. Did it really matter? "You of all people should understand that I can't just—just _do_ that."

"Why the hell not? Annabeth, I'm sorry but you really should apologize first. You can't expect him to—I don't know, do whatever he's done every time this year when you've exploded on him. Just like, wait until it's been long enough to pretend you're not mad anymore." When Annabeth didn't answer, her voice got soft and gentle again, and somehow that hurt more. "You told me, that when you were mad at him because you didn't understand what you were feeling, he apologized to you. To _you_ , Annabeth. When he had done nothing wrong."

Annabeth was definitely crying. "That's why I _can't_ apologize. I keep pretending that he sucks and that's the reason nothing goes right, but I think maybe it's because _I'm_ the one who sucks, and he's too good for me. I—I think I might be a terrible person, Piper."

"Yeah, but Percy's also a bit of a terrible person. That's why you're perfect together."

Annabeth laughed a bit at that, wiping the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand. "Even—even if you're right about that, I think it's too late. I fucked everything up too badly. He's not going to forgive me, not after this."

Piper smiled, reaching over to brush a stray tear off Annabeth's cheek. "Well, you know there's only one thing you can do now."

Annabeth nodded. _Apologize_.

* * *

Piper was wrong. There was more than one thing Annabeth could do now. The other option was to avoid Percy completely.

It wasn't exactly easy – it was tech week, after all, and they had dress rehearsals every spare minute. When she was on stage, she spent every waking minute drowning in Percy, and it was like shards of glass stabbing into her stomach, over and over. But at least Percy didn't seem to want to talk to her either. As soon as the scene was done, he was off the stage and out of sight. He didn't ask for anymore help from Annabeth memorizing lines, even though she could see him struggling a bit in scenes. He didn't seek her out to tell her the puns he thought of when he was onstage, though she did catch him telling one to the caramel-haired girl in charge of the lights. It made something inside of Annabeth burst into flames.

The worst part was it was completely her fault. All of it.

Their chemistry changed. Not just offstage, but onstage too. One of the first things Ms. Aphrodite had told Annabeth went she went to complain about the cast list was she cast Percy and Annabeth together because they had such great chemistry. When they were together, she told Annabeth, they moved together, they _breathed_ together.

Now, Annabeth felt like she was struggling to catch her breath.

It wasn't as if they stopped acting. She remembered to look at him with love and admiration most of the time, when they were onstage. But it was just so easy to slip out of it. So easy to stare at him sadly and regret everything when she wasn't centre-stage. She hated that she was letting her emotions get in the way of her passions.

Unfortunately, Annabeth wasn't the only one who noticed the change. After their third dress rehearsal, Mr. D called them to the side to talk to them. Annabeth snuck a peek at Percy as Mr. D regarded the both of them, but he wasn't looking back, staring ahead.

Mr. D looked back and forth between him, then pursed his lips. "Now, I don't know what's going on between you two, but I would like it to stop immediately. It's immature and unprofessional."

"Nothing's going on," Percy said, still refusing to look at Annabeth.

"Nonsense. Your stage kiss today was the worst I have ever seen in my career. Like two dead fish flopping their mouths against each other." Annabeth winced at the analogy, but Mr. D wasn't done. "I don't care what adolescent drama you have going on, but I want it gone before opening night, because if you do not pull yourselves together I will personally make sure you never get another acting job again in your lives. Understand?"

Annabeth mumbled an agreement to the floor.

Mr. D straightened, swelling impressively like a blowfish. "Good. Dismissed."

They started to walk away, side by side but not really walking together.

Annabeth took a breath. "Percy, maybe we should—"

"Yeah, I got it Annabeth. I'll try to act like I like you more, okay?" With that, he quickened his pace and ran up the stairs, leaving Annabeth to come to a halt and stare up after him. Then she sat down on the stairs and felt sorry for herself until Piper showed up and sat down beside her.

"What did Mr. D wanna talk about?" she asked, staring to pull bobby pins out of her long, hair-sprayed curls.

"Nothing. I mean, our acting, I guess. He just told us our chemistry sucked and whatever and he was going to sabotage our careers."

"So like, normal Mr. D stuff?"

"Yeah."

Abandoning her bobby pins, Piper scooted closer and put an arm around Annabeth. "Look, hon, I'm not going to say this wasn't all preventable, but you can fix it, you know that. Percy's a good guy, I know if you ask he'll forgive you."

Annabeth shrugged with one shoulder. "I mean I already kind of asked…"

Piper drew away again, clearly surprised. "Wait, you did? You apologized? And he… and he said _no?_ "

"Well, I mean not quite. I was going to ask him if he wanted to—to practice lines again or something, because I thought maybe—maybe that would make things go back to normal. But he just ran off, so. What else can I do?"

Piper buried her head in her hands, sighing loudly. "Annabeth, you dumbass. You can't just refuse to apologize and expect everything to go back to normal."

"It worked last time!"

"Yeah, and that's why you really, _really_ need to actually apologize this time. You can't keep using the boy like this. I'm sure all he wants is an apology and then everything will go back to normal. Can you not stand like, two minutes of humiliation for a good show? You're way too stubborn, you know that right?"

"I know…"

"Then go apologize! Just this once, for everyone, please?"

Annabeth crossed her arms, staring at the floor. "Fine. When?"

Beaming, Piper gathered her bobby pins from the steps and slipped them into her pocket as she stood up. " _Now_. Now would be great. Who knows, you could even get in a few good dress rehearsals before opening night! Good luck!" She hopped down the last step and trotted off, leaving Annabeth to sit alone. She sighed, and tried to decide what she could tell Percy.

Annabeth hated to admit she was in the wrong. Apologizing had never been her strong suit. She was defensive and always wanted to be right. Which was why everything had to be just right now.

She would tell Percy she was sorry, that it was all her fault. That she was going through some stuff and she took it out on him.

Nodding to herself, she leapt to her feet and ran up the stairs. She wasn't sure where Percy had gone, but he should still be easy enough to find. He was probably in the theatre. Annabeth checked there first, and the door creaked opened slowly as she pushed through it. The theatre was pitch black, and Annabeth stumbled up the stairs as she walked in. Her stomach twisted as she crept through the dark, feeling as if she need to be silent in such a quiet room. She was a bit ashamed that after four years here she didn't know where the light switch was.

After a few moments of quiet searching in the dark, Annabeth made her way backstage, humming to herself as she walked and tapping the bricks along the wall, counting them as she passed.

 _One, two_ …

What if Percy refused to accept her apology? Piper had basically promised he would, and if he didn't Annabeth would have done everything she could, but still. She wasn't sure she could handle the humiliation.

 _Six, seven, eight…_

What was she apologizing for, really? For having emotions? She couldn't help that.

 _Ten, eleven…_

It was so dark backstage. Maybe she should come back later.

 _Thirteen…_

She found Percy.

She rounded a corner and was suddenly blinking. A door to the hallway was open, pouring light over the old bricks, and Percy was leaning against the wall beside it, one hand resting on the doorknob, and the other tangled easily into some girl's hair. They were kissing, intensely, and suddenly Annabeth's entire face was hot.

She turned to leave, but they seemed to feel her presence, and broke apart with a pop.

For a moment, Annabeth thought she saw Percy's eyes go wide with horror. But then she blinked again and he was staring at her, cold and collected, and she knew she had imagined it.

"Yeah, can I help you?" he asked, casually wiping his chin.

"I—" For once, Annabeth was at a loss for words. Or insults. She stumbled backwards. "No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" She broke off. Percy's glare felt like icy knives. "Sorry—I'll just. I'll just go."

She spun around on her heel, then realized the door beside Percy was still open and hurried out through there instead. She got halfway down the hall before she slumped back against a locker, breathing heavily.

Well. That was certainly more humiliating than apologizing.

She was still standing there a few minutes later, her arms crossed over her stomach, when she heard soft footsteps padding towards her. She looked up, some small part of her hoping it was Percy, but it was the girl instead. Annabeth recognized her, she was the pretty one who helped with the lights she'd noticed Percy talking to. The one with the soft hair who loved white sundresses. At that moment, Annabeth found it hard not to hate her gentle smile.

"Hello," she said, stopping a few feet away from Annabeth. She stood awkwardly for a moment, and then held out her hand. Warily, Annabeth took it. "I'm really sorry about—about what just happened. I'm Calypso, by the way. I would never have kissed Percy if I had known about you two."

Annabeth's head jerked up at that. "About us?"

"Yes—you don't have to explain, I saw the way you guys looked at each other. I'm sorry I got in between, I didn't realize you were dating outside the show as well. Percy talks about you so much, you know that? I should have realized."

"He does?"

Calypso nodded. "Oh yes, he thinks you're one of the best actors he's ever met. He loves your voice too, and I can understand why. It's quite beautiful."

"He said that?" Annabeth whispered. She could feel the twisting of guilt in her chest. Percy said nothing but nice things to her, _about_ her, and all she had done was hurt him. Calypso seemed to sense her inner turmoil, and put a gentle hand on her arm.

"You guys are fighting, aren't you? I knew it. You looked a little distant onstage this afternoon. Well that's okay, I know you guys will make up. How could you not with the way you look at each other?"

Annabeth nodded somewhat numbly. She felt faintly like throwing up.

"Alright, well sorry again!" Calypso started backing away, waving cheerfully to Annabeth as she went. "I can't wait to see you perform on Friday! Have a good night!"

As soon as she was out of sight, Annabeth slid down the locker and buried her head in her hands. So Percy probably liked her, and she definitely liked Percy, and she had just put her entire life in shambles. The only viable option now was to set things right.

Before the curtain closed.

* * *

It was opening night, and Thalia had brought flowers.

She handed them to Annabeth, smirking and obviously proud of herself. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"You know you're not supposed to give me flowers until _after_ the show, right? Like, once you know I'm not complete bullshit."

Thalia simply shoved the flowers into her chest. "I know you're not bullshit, I've seen you in like six shows. Besides, if I give them to you after the show then I have to keep them with me for another three hours and I don't want to do that. So I'm giving them to you now. Treat them well. I expect to see them strategically placed onstage where we can all see them."

Annabeth smiled, and delicately took the flowers. They were tulips, fresh and yellow, and they smelled sweet. She kind of wished she had a personal dressing room to put them in or something. As it was, her water bottle might have to do. "Thanks."

Thalia grinned, wiggling her eyebrows. "Of course. And tell my baby brother to break his fucking nose or something."

"The expression is _break a leg_."

"I know. Pass along my message!" She waved cheerfully at Annabeth and wandered off to talk to someone. Or maybe to stand by the water fountain and glower at people. Annabeth wasn't sure. Grinning, she turned on her heel and took the stairs two at a time.

The hallways were full of people. She wasn't sure if there were more people than usual this year, or she was just noticing now because she had the lead role, but there was still half an hour until the show and their seemed to be new people around every turn. Finally upstairs and out of the throngs of people, Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief.

She held the flowers closer to her chest and breathed them in.

Then she set off towards the theatre.

"Nice flowers, Chase!" called Jason, passing her on his way to the bathroom. "Your boyfriend give you those?"

"Your sister, actually," Annabeth called back. "We're madly in love. She told me to tell you to break your fucking nose."

Jason blinked. "You mean break my leg?"

"Hey, I'm just the messenger."

"Are you actually in love with my sister?"

Annabeth simply smirked and set off, leaving Jason to trail behind her. "Wait, Annabeth! Are you actually dating my sister? Annabeth!"

The theatre was full of chatter, and Annabeth found Piper sitting cross-legged in front of a mirror, perfecting her eyeliner. Annabeth sat down beside her, setting the yellow tulips carefully on the floor. She leaned over and watched as Piper carefully winged her eyeliner, sitting motionless with her mouth propped open.

"You look like a fish," Annabeth grinned, and Piper almost jumped.

"Shut up. I'm making myself beautiful."

"Did they have winged eyeliner in the fifties?" Annabeth started shuffling through Piper's make-up bag.

"Don't know, don't care. I'm wearing it."

"Suit yourself." She pulled out a bottle of concealer and grinned over at Piper. "Hey, this is mine, I lost this months ago."

Piper paused from her eyeliner to glare over. "It is not. That's so mine."

"This is definitely not your shade." She dropped it back in the bag and stood up, shaking out her legs and snatching up her flowers. "Alright, well Hazel told me she wanted to do my makeup so I've got to go. Have fun with your eyeliner!"

"Shut up," said Piper cheerfully.

Hazel wasn't anywhere to be found in the theatre, so Annabeth wandered into the hall. Sometimes, they did makeup and costumes in other classrooms, or even backstage of the gym for quick changes. Annabeth squeezed down a hidden stairwell so she was behind the gym stage, and crept between the boxes and set pieces until she reached the door on the other side. She was just starting to turn the handle when she heard her name.

"Annabeth."

She turned, and it was Percy, lying on the ground with his legs straight up against the wall, his script propped open on his chest. He was already in costume, wearing a leather jacket with his hair deliciously gelled. Annabeth swallowed, and he scrambled to his feet.

"Sorry, if you want to hang out back here I'll find somewhere else to practice." He started towards the door, and Annabeth didn't find her voice until his shoulder brushed against hers as he passed.

 _"You know there's only one thing you can do now,"_ Piper had said.

"Percy, wait!"

He paused, his hand hovering over the door handle. He didn't turn to face her. Annabeth took a deep breath, and then another one, then blurted out the words.

"I'm sorry."

Percy turned to face her, his arms crossed, and quirked an eyebrow. "Is that why you have the flowers? To bribe me? That won't work, you know."

"What?" Annabeth glanced down at the yellow tulips clenched in her fist. "Oh, no, these are—they're not—they're mine, that's not the point. The point is I—I'm _sorry_."

He huffed a disbelieving laugh, and started to turn away again. "Okay, Annabeth."

But Annabeth was far from done. The first words were out and now the rest were spilling, overflowing, like a glass that had finally tipped. "No, I have to tell you the truth. All of it. I can't do this anymore. I—I said all of those awful things and you have to understand I didn't mean _any_ of it, Percy…" She trailed off pleadingly. He was still staring at her in cruel amusement, like he knew she was lying. It was all a wall, so she couldn't hurt him again. Her eyes stung.

"I know—I mean, I get it if you can't ever forgive me. Because I've hurt you too many damn times, and it's all my fault and it's only because I can't—can't deal with how—how I feel. I can't deal with the fact that I like you so fucking much it's ripping me apart but we're supposed to _hate_ each other and taking it out on you is so much easier than—than the truth but—"

Her voice broke, and she gave a small sob, but swallowed again because Percy needed to hear all of it. "I shouldn't have hurt you because of it, because you're one of the best friends I've got, and now… Now I've been talking for too long, goddamn it." She covered her face with her hands and sat down on a box, feeling every breath shake.

There was a moment of absolute silence, nothing but Percy's shock and Annabeth's shaky breaths.

Then he sat down beside her quietly, and tugged one of her hands away from her face. She met his eyes reluctantly, and he didn't look angry anymore.

"You like me?" he breathed, his voice soft with disbelief.

Miserably, she nodded. "Of course I do. You're so—you're amazing. Why did you think I said all those things?"

He shrugged with one shoulder. "I guess I just figured I was just that repulsive to you. Or that you had just been pretending to be my friend this whole time."

"God, no, I could never do that." She buried her head again. "I just fucked this up so badly, didn't I?"

She felt Percy shake his head beside her, whether in response to her or just in shock she couldn't tell.

"I like you too, you know."

She looked up at him, and his expression was so gentle she wanted to cry. She really didn't deserve his kindness, not after everything. "You do?"

"Of course I do. What—what do you think I've been doing all these months? Why do you think I invited you to my house and sent you texts and walked you home and offered to _practice the kissing scene_ and made fun of you for maybe—maybe liking me and… Why would I have done _any_ of that if I didn't really like you?"

She shrugged, and despite herself she was smiling. "I don't know, I was just… We hated each other for so long and I didn't believe any of that had really changed."

"I never really hated you," he said, taking her face in his hands. She closed her eyes. "So believe it."

How much would change, really, if she kissed him as Annabeth instead of Sandy?

The door opened, and Hazel stuck her head in. She blinked at Percy at Annabeth for a moment, and then her face broke out into a wide grin. " _Oh._ Um, sorry guys. Annabeth, we need to get your makeup on before the show, but… I'll give you guys a second." She shut the door carefully, still grinning.

Annabeth and Percy stared at each other for a long moment, then burst out laughing.

Annabeth struggled to her feet, still giggling, and beamed at Percy. She patted down her hair, even though there was no reason to pat. "I should—I should go get my makeup done. I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

She was almost at the door when he called out her name. "Annabeth?"

"Yeah?"

"You forgot your flowers."

"Oh, um. Keep them. Just don't tell Thalia."

She turned the door handle.

"Annabeth?"

"Yeah?"

"Good luck."

She turned her head to look at him, and his smile was contagious. "Thanks."

* * *

She didn't stop grinning the entire time Hazel did her makeup. She didn't stop smiling while she hung up her costumes neatly in order on the rack, or as one of the backstage crew taped the microphone to her face. She was still smiling as she quietly recited her lines backstage when Piper came to get her from the pre-show rituals.

Piper raised her eyebrows inquisitively as she set her own costumes down on the rack. "Well aren't you cheerful. Something happen?"

Annabeth ducked her head, trying to purse her lips and failing. "No, nothing. I'm just… excited for the show."

"Come on, I've known you since ninth grade and you're grinning like the Grinch about to steal Christmas, so _spill_. What happened?"

God, her face was going to split. "Percy likes me."

Piper's eyes widened, and Annabeth continued in a rush.

"You were so right, I finally apologized, and I told him the truth about everything and he—he said he likes me too, and Piper help my face is stuck like this how do I stop oh my god, holy _fuck—_ "

Piper was laughing, and she wrapped an arm around Annabeth's shoulder to guide her towards the door. "Of course he likes you, babe, was that not perfectly obvious for the past six months? I'm so glad you finally apologized. It was about time."

"I know, I suck, don't I."

"Only a bit. But it doesn't matter because now you have a man and the lead role in the musical so it's about time we head upstairs for vocal warmups and stuff so we can all sound like heavenly choruses or whatever."

"Sounds like a plan."

There were a lot of pre-show rituals, most of which came from various different theatre groups from various people in the crew. They sang vocal warmups for a while, singing rounds and tongue twisters until everyone felt ready. Or mostly. Piper found Annabeth walking around the theatre in circles shaking her hands and repeating the same stretch of song over and over again. She dragged Annabeth back to the rest of the group.

" _Relax_ , you're going to be amazing. I promise."

They held hands in a circle and recited a small poem someone had come up with about depending on each other and jumped up and down and passed around an imaginary joint, which some of the freshmen were extremely wary of. ("It's _imaginary,_ guys," Piper said in exasperation.)

Then somehow, Annabeth was standing backstage, holding onto the curtain and peeking out into the audience. Most of the plastic chairs they had set up earlier were filled, and there were a few small children sitting in front of the rows pushing tiny cars around. Annabeth drew in a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

Someone put a hand on her shoulder, and she was overwhelmed by the scent of hair gel. Her eyes still closed, she grinned.

"Hi, Percy."

"You knew it was me?" He sounded surprised.

"Your hair reeks."

She could almost see him touching it self-consciously, just from the tone of his voice. "Oh. Right."

She touched his hand, which was still resting on her shoulder. "Don't worry. It looks great."

The chatter of voices from the audience rose and fell like waves of raindrops. Annabeth caught snippets of conversation that rose above the din, and she knew everyone here was counting on her to do it right.

Percy sidestepped so he was standing right beside, and put an arm around her. Annabeth leaned into the crook of his shoulder and sighed. "I'm not usually this nervous before shows."

"Don't be," he said, rubbing circles on her shoulder. "You're absolutely incredible at this. Seriously. When you sing, everyone in the room stops to listen."

She chuckled. "Thanks, that's a very original line."

"It's true!"

"Places, everyone!" Ms. Aphrodite called from across the stage, clapping her hands together. On the other side of the curtain, Annabeth got a glimpse of the lights going out, and the audience chatter faded to a whisper.

Panic flared up inside of her, and she glanced up desperately at Percy, her eyes wide. He simply laughed softly at her, and squeezed her shoulder. " _Relax_. You're going to be great, I promise."

He dragged her across the stage, to where they were supposed to start the first scene. She chewed on the inside of her lip as they walked, even though that was definitely a terrible idea. "You promise? So I can hold you accountable if anything goes wrong?"

He rolled his eyes. "Sure."

They stared quietly at each other for a brief moment, waiting for the world to move again. Then Percy leaned in and kissed her gently on the cheek. "Break a leg," he whispered.

Then the curtain opened.

And the music swelled and the show _began_.

Annabeth Chase was never nervous during a show. For the days before a show to the minutes before a show, she was nauseous and paranoid and _terrified_. But once it finally happened, once the music sang out and the lights were in her eyes and she was up there, doing was she was meant to, everything kind of just… went away.

Except Percy, of course. Percy was still there, holding her hand and pulling her onto the stage, his laugh genuine, his eyes alight. And when he picked her up and spun her round she realized maybe today she wouldn't have to act so hard after all.

The show was a blur of colours and lights and applause, of music that came from the wings and Percy's arms around her and emotions that were really _real._ Backstage, Annabeth chugged her water and changed costumes as quickly as she could. Onstage, she took her time, and set her character and set the mood and everything was _perfect_.

Because this time, when Percy held her hand, she _knew_ it was genuine. And when he took her face in his hands and kissed her she knew maybe that was a little bit real too.

Percy wasn't what mattered about the show, though. He was a bonus, of course, but what really mattered was everything that was happening here and now. Annabeth sung like she had never sung before. She danced like she didn't have two left feet. She laughed and cried and she was sweating and out of breath, but every so often she caught a glimpse of something in the audience that added to the fire that was burning somewhere deep in her stomach.

An awed face, a twinkle in someone's eye. Thalia, in the front row, laughing far too loudly and distinctly at all of the jokes. Her dad cheering somewhere in the back, because for once he had put in the effort to come to one of her shows.

The lights, shining so brightly in her face. She stared into the lights and sang and sang until she was nearly blinded but the glare.

Because this was what she was _born_ to do.

Intermission came and went, and Annabeth never quite got out of character. Before she knew it she was trying to slip a few more sips of water down as Hazel zipped up the side of her final costume: the crazy tight black leather pants and jacket Sandy wears right at the end of the show. It was fake leather, of course, very sticky and uncomfortable, but Annabeth kind of liked it. It made her feel like Sandy.

Hazel finished zipping her up just as she was hastily dashing on bright red lipstick. She smacked her lips as Hazel handed her a (fake) cigarette and pushed her into the wing.

"Kill it, Annabeth!"

When she sauntered onstage, hips swinging and cigarette propped between her fingers, she couldn't help but grin at the way Percy's eyes popped. Which is what they were supposed to do. But still.

"Sandy?!"

She strutted forwards until she was right under his nose and stared up at him, smirking, the cigarette dangling from her lips and said, "Tell me about it, _stud._ "

A single whoop from the audience. Annabeth almost rolled her eyes. _Thalia._

Then the music started again, and it was the beginning of the end. The perfect finale for the perfect story. Annabeth could see all their friends, all the cast dancing around them, and she and Percy were in harmony with each other, voice and body. They sang like it would never end.

 _"You're the one that I want!"_

The music ended, triumphant, leaving Percy and Annabeth breathing heavily with their intertwined hands held above their heads in the echoes.

The audience erupted, and they were swallowed into cheers.

The curtain closed briefly, which left the two leads a moment to catch their breaths backstage as the chorus gathered for their bows. Annabeth could still hear the audience clapping as fast as her heart as she sat down on a box, breathing deeply. Percy slid down beside her, trying to wipe sweat of his forehead with the corner of his jacket. (Which Annabeth doubted was very absorbent.)

"Wow," he breathed, because that was all you could do when you just did an entire dance number. "Wow, Annabeth… you were amazing."

She giggled. "Please, says you."

"I'm serious! It was one of the best opening shows I've ever been in! You were incredible!" He was leaning towards her, the end of his hair flopping down over his forehead and his expression adorably eager. She couldn't keep a straight face.

"Thanks. You were too." She meant it.

She glanced up to the ensemble dancing onto the stage and started struggling to her feet. "We better get back up, we have to get back out onto the stage in a minute."

Percy stood up beside her, grabbing her sleeve to pull himself up. "We don't have to go back _quite_ yet…"

And without warning he yanked her into a hug, and she squealed as she hurled into his chest. He was big and warm and suddenly she was engulfed in the smell of sweat and hairspray. For a moment Annabeth closed her eyes and wished she would never have to let go.

As quickly as he'd grabbed her he let go, and then he was holding her hand and dragging her onstage again. She laughed and stumbled onto the stage and the audience exploded into cheers. In the corner, Thalia stood, and some people behind her followed suit, and a moment later the entire audience was standing, applauding, cheering.

Annabeth bowed and bowed, Percy's hand in hers.

Just when the audience noise was starting to fade, Percy pulled Annabeth into his chest again and she laughed, trying to playfully push him away.

"Are you even _trying_ to be professional?"

He grinned, avoiding the question. "I was just wishing that onstage didn't have to be the only place I could kiss you."

Percy's forehead shone and his hair flopped and he smelled awful. She had never wanted to kiss anyone more. She brushed the hair off his forehead. "It doesn't have to be."

And then she was burying her hands in his crunchy hair and pulling his face to hers and they were kissing and she had been wrong.

If she kissed him as Annabeth it was so, _so_ much better.

They broke apart, and the audience whooped and cheered and catcalled. So she kissed him again.

Annabeth only felt truly alive when the lights were on her face.

She loved the rush performing gave her, and she loved the people she met. When she was standing on a stage with the lights shining in her eyes, a full house in front of her, she was _living._

Onstage was her escape from reality, a moment of perfection in an imperfect reality.

But with Percy by her side, she had never felt so real.

* * *

 **So if you got through that kudos to you because I finished this months later and many words more than I expected to. But it was super fun to write, especially with lots of bits pulled from my theatre life, so hopefully you enjoyed it.**

 **A huge thanks to anyone that read, and special thanks to Rachel, one of my best friends ever and the best beta/motivator/advisor that ever existed. Love you babe! Also thanks to my lovely pal Allie who let me explain the entire plot of this story to her and gave me some lovely advice when I was stuck. And also FINALLY read the book I leant her. Love ya!**

 **Oh and for anyone who follows Childhood: haven't abandoned it yet, don't worry. I'm hoping to get the next chapter up in the near future, so look out for that.**

 **If you enjoyed this, leave me a favourite or even a review, they make my day! Thanks all!**

 **-GGW**


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